while another variety of potatoes on the same soil and with exactly the same treatment will yield only 200 bushels per acre? Does it pay to know how to save the life of a valuable farm animal by knowledge of veterinary science? With such questions the inquiry as to the profitableness of agricultural education finds emphatic and convincing answer.

It is sometimes said that an agricultural college education pays only the student who seeks to teach in an agricultural college or become an investigator in an agricultural experiment station. The demand for such teachers and investigators has drawn heavily upon the graduating classes of the colleges. But the training is profitable also for the modern farmer. If the result is measured merely by money standards, the agricultural education pays. If it is measured by other standards: leadership,

higher ideals of life, social preeminence, the agricultural college education pays even larger dividends. Investigation shows that the training of the modern farmer takes him back to the farm and makes him leader there.

The Michigan Agricultural College, the oldest college of agriculture in the United States, has graduated over a thousand men, of whom sixty per cent are engaged in active farm work and nearly all the others in teaching or investigating in agricultural colleges or stations. The percentage in other colleges is equally as large. The college is solving the problem of how to keep the boys on the farm and also the problem of how to draw from the city to the farm. The state has large benefit here.

Agricultural education is not expensive. sive. An investigation shows that the average cost of attending any one of a half dozen leading agricultural colleges is less than $240 a year. At the same time it was shown that it is possible in nearly every college for any student in good health to make his own way. one college twelve of a class of sixteen paid their own expenses during an entire four years' course.

In

That the state believes in this making of the modern farmer is shown by the constantly increasing appropriations by the various legislatures for the agricultural colleges. In seven years the total appropriations have increased one hundred per cent. That the farmer believes

The New Seismic Station at Havana
By Louis C. Kane

AN event of great importance to the

N event of great importance to the

vana, Cuba, the latter part of February, when the new seismic station for the recording of the earth's disturbances was officially inaugurated and the delicate instrument put into practical operation at that place.

This station is not under government control but is an adjunct to the observatory of the College of Belen, located a few miles from the city of Havana,,which is conducted by the Jesuit fathers, and with the new instrument it is their intention to study seismic phenomena.

A small brick building has been erected on the brow of a low hill, and the apparatus rests upon a cement foundation laid upon a solid rock subsoil so that the instrument does not come into contact with the earth. Its base has two branches at

right angles, one of which lies from north to south while the other extends from east to west.

The apparatus consists of two horizontal pendula, and a mechanical regulator placed upon a sheet of smoked paper.

In

The two seismographs are exactly alike, the one which lies from north to south will show the component vibration from east to west, and the other, which is laid from east to west, will show the component vibration from north to south. the case of an earthquake the base and all other parts of the apparatus naturally follow the same movement while the perpendicular arm remains motionless as though suspended in the air by an invisible hand. The metal cylinder, which is covered by the smoked paper and revolved by clockwork, is located beneath the point of the pen at the end of the arm, which works horizontally and perpendicularly, and truthfully marks every movement of the earth's surface.

These seismographs not only exactly reveal the oscillations of the earth, but permit their distance, their extension and their magnitude to be measured with the utmost precision, whether there be trembling at thousands of miles distance or shakings at the bottom of the ocean. The instruments are so very delicately con

structed that they can not be worked to advantage within cities where even the ringing of church bells is apt to throw them out of gear.

These instruments are the first to be installed in Cuba and are said to be the only ones in the entire West Indies.

While the official inauguration did not take place until February, the apparatus had been completely installed and ready for a trial test, so that when the Kingston earthquake occurred, the instrument had its first actual test and registered the earthquake as having started at 3:14 P.M. on January 14, and lasted one hour and ten minutes.

How the Consumers' League Is Helping Industrial Conditions

MANY

By Katherine Louise Smith

ANY people regret the conditions under which employees work, but few realize that the consumer or purchaser is really the cause of the evils from which working men, women and children suffer. The organization of the Consumers' League in 1890 was the first public acknowledgment of the fact. To-day the Consumers' League, wherever found, is an attempt to make it easier for buyers to avoid injustice in their dealings, and to provide a list of "fair houses" or places where workers receive just pay and work under favorable conditions. It is also an appeal to employers to allow inquiries into the condition of their work-people, and to better it when possible.

Many clergymen, professional men and women and prominent people, are members of the National Consumers' League, a fact which, in reality, is a recognition on the part of the public of the need of better industrial conditions and an endeavor to place the responsibility where it belongs, namely, on the purchasers. It is the rage for cheap goods that injures the working people, but the last to recognize this are the women devotees of the bargain counters. They forget that every time a woman purchases a garment made in a sweatshop she is, as a matter of fact, ordering another at the same price. Because no buyer can readily find out the conditions under which garments are sold, the League has a list of "fair

houses," or shops which deal justly with employees, and continually strives to add to the number. This can be accomplished because merchants are often willing, even at a sacrifice, to make innovations as to hours, pay, chances of rest and details pertaining to the comfort of the employees if these changes can become general so that business advantages may be equal.

The New York Branch, which is one of the most flourishing, early in its career drew up the standard of a "fair house" as one where equal pay is given for work of equal value, irrespective of sex, in which wages are paid by the week, in which the hours do not exceed those from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M., and in which a general half holiday is given on one day each week for at least the summer months. A vacation of one week with pay is now given in these "fair houses," and no children under fourteen years of age are employed. One important question agitated by all Leagues is that of seats for clerks. Where investigation was was conducted it was found that in many instances there was only one seat for fifteen girls. All physicians testify that physical evils result from the long hours during which young women and girls employed in shops are required to stand. On this account the New York League adopted the principle that one seat for every three women is the smallest proportion that ought to be provided.

It is, however, in educating purchasers that the most helpful aspect of the work lies. The average woman does not stop to ask questions as to the conditions under which things are made, if they are only cheap, and she leaves her Christmas shopping until just before the holidays, orders trivial purchases sent home, and on Saturdays sometimes defers shopping until evening. All these are things broad-minded women will avoid when attention is called to them. It is just as easy to shop before the Christmas rush as after it begins, and to order goods early in the day that delivery men and clerks may not have to work over hours.

An erroneous impression in regard to buying sweatshop clothing exists, for it is not necessary to buy the product of those who toil under unfavorable conditions in order to secure garments at reasonable

prices. It has been found that with improved machinery and processes, underwear can be made in sanitary factories, under conditions approved by the Consumers' League, at as small a cost as the sweatshop product. These factories comply with the League regulations and are granted the use of the League label.

Different methods are employed in various states to call the attention of the public to the League and its methods. Many branch Leagues publish at Christmas a special circular, giving names of merchants who make provision for the comforts of their employees. Some of these are free suppers or supper money, half force on alternate nights and extra time to employees in the morning. recent meetings of the General Federation of Women's Clubs the principles of the Consumers' League have received endorsement, and from Maine to California the clubs have been pushing the question, though some states are more conservative than others.

At

One of the satisfactory fields for the work is in connection with schools. Professors of Economics at Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Chicago and Pennsylvania Universities are honorary vice-presidents of the National League, and lecturers on current events in fashionable schools for girls interest their charges in the history of the production of candy and clothing, as well as the welfare of children and clerks. So much has this influenced the girls of Wellesley that Boston merchants have increased their efforts to buy labeled goods. Smith College also has a League that puts its principles into vigorous execution. In all, the National Consumer's League embraces sixty-three local Leagues in twenty states.

Any one about to order a tailor suit in New York city can inquire at the office of the League for addresses of tailors who do not send their work to be finished in the tenements, or a merchant, by sending the names of the manufactories from which he obtains goods, can secure information for the benefit of himself and customers.

At present there are nearly sixty manufacturers using the label of the society, and these operate factories in eleven states and produce all grades of clothing, from the cheapest to the finest.

One

They include some of the largest makers of underwear in New England. means employed to further the interest of the League has been a series of exhibits of garments bearing the label. These have been arranged through the exertions of state or local leagues. The idea originated in Worcester, Massachusetts. New York followed with an exhibit where John Wanamaker sent label-marked goods, cases to hold them, and men to trim the cases. Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago all carried out the same idea. One of the highest proofs of the efficacy of the label is that it is imitated by various firms.

Undoubtedly the difficulties of the work are great. Purchasers are often selfish, and, unaided by public opinion, it is hard for even an honorable man of business to produce better conditions. among those who are producers of the wares he sells; but the encouragement of distinguished economists and the awakened social conscience of our time are factors which help persons to base preferences not on cheapness but upon considerations of another nature. A few facts are patent. If customers insist that an employer treat an employee with fairness, and support him in the endeavor, he will do so. Much of the responsibility rests with women, for they are the shoppers. Purchasing in the early hours of the day renders work less arduous, so does carrying home small parcels, distinctly stating an address, and having patience with mistakes.

The child labor law of Illinois, prohibiting the employment of any child under sixteen years of age longer than eight hours a day, is largely the result of the efforts of the club women of Chicago. Other reforms are possible if women will insist. It is never improper to recommend one shop over another, and perfectly legitimate to try to patronize a merchant who gives his employees more free hours a day, more time for lunch, more chance to sit down, and who buys his goods from sanitary factories instead of sweatshops. As soon as this is done, merchants will see it is for their advantage to provide favorable conditions, and this part of the economy of individual labor will be uplifting.

History and Biography

Lectures on Modern History. By the late Right Hon. John Edward Emerick, First Baron Acton, D.C.L., LL.D., Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge. Edited with an Introduction by John Neville Figgis, M.A., and Reginald Vere Laurence, M.A. London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1906. Pp. xix, 362. $3.26.

This volume apparently is to be the "Chief monument of the unfulfilled renown" of Lord Acton. For the inner circle who were privileged to hear him, these lectures will restore echoes of the deep, manly voice," whose very tones, as his admirers used to say, sounded "the accents of history." In the larger audience they can hardly fail to stimulate new interest in the study of history as the record of the enfranchisement of humanity. The nineteen lectures cover three hundred years of modern history, from the French invasion of Italy to the American Revolution. They are "masterpieces of lucid statement," abounding in suggestive and stimulating criticism; packed with allusion and brilliant with aphorism. The book, therefore, is not to be read and digested at a sitting but studied, read again and pondered. At times the author is guilty of careless writing; again he utters sentiments that sound like crass dogmatism. Yet in the presence of so much rugged strength, so much evident intensity of feeling, and such wealth of scholarly research, the critic may well ignore the one or hesitate to challenge the other. Here, moreover, are ideas that the younger members of the guild may ponder to advantage. Thus Lord Acton urges:

"I hope that even this narrow section of history will aid you to see that the action of Christ who is risen, on mankind whom he redeemed, fails not, but increases; that the wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection, but in the improvement of the world."

This may be old-fashioned; but to some of us who find it difficult to shape our faith to the currents of contemporary philosophy, who still dare to entertain the hope that in some way Providence yet has something to do with human history, such words, coming from such a source, are reassuring, to say the least.

The German Empire. By Burt Estes Howard, Ph.D. New York and London: the Macmillan Company, 1906. Pp. 435. $2 net.

This is an old subject in a new form. For the first time in English the German Empire is discussed purely from the constitutional standpoint, and particularly in the light of the constitutional law and interpretation which has grown up since 1870. We are shown the Impe

are

rial constitution as it was originally planned, and the present Imperial organization, developed through the labors of the jurists and the progress of custom. The author has kept throughout strictly to main issues. Beginning with the relation of the Empire to the individual states, the whole fabric of the Imperial constitution is examined in detail. Chapters on the "Kaiser,'' the "Bundesrath" and the "Reichstag,' followed by an able analysis of the method of making Imperial law, the powers and duties of the Chancellor, the qualifications for citizenship, and the organization of the judiciary. In addition there are excellent chapters on the historical development of the organization of AlsaceLorraine and its relation to the Empire, the organization and administration of Imperial finance and of the army.

We are indebted to Dr. Howard for having penetrated the maze of German Imperial jurisprudence and the extensive discussions of the learned German authorities on the constitutional law of the Empire, and giving us the results of it all in one clear and scholarly volume, that all students of constitutional law and government will find indispensable. The volume is furnished with a translation of the German Imperial constitution, but there is no general bibliography of the sources used.

The History of England. From Addington's Administration to the Close of William IV.'s Reign. 1801-1837. By the Hon. George C. Brodrick, D.C.L., completed and revised by J. K. Fotheringham, M.A. Longmans, 1906. Pp. xx, 486. $2.60.

as

The present volume is the eleventh of the series of monographs collectively known "The Political History of England." It can hardly be said, however, to equal the uniform excellence of its predecessors. The treatment of home questions is the work of Mr. Brodrick. Here the knowledge of authorities is evident; the temper of the writer also is moderate and his conclusions sound. As much, however, can not be said of the treatment of foreign questions, confessedly the work of Mr. Brodrick's collaborator, Mr. Fotheringham. The knowledge of the writer is neither thorough nor accurate and is apparently gathered for the most part at secondhand. His Napoleon, moreover, is still the old Napoleon, the pet aversion of the English writers of seventy-five years ago.

In his treatment of the American war, also, he is neither accurate in details nor sound in his conclusions. He shows no acquaintance with the work of American scholars and little with the best English writers. He is amazed that the Americans should beat the English on their own element, and he justifies the burning of the libraries and public buildings at Washington as