Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/733

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FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.
713

Life of a College Professor. Pp. 8.—Lumholtz, Carl: The Huichol Indians of Mexico. Pp. 14, with 2 plates.—McReynolds, John O.: A New Phorometer. Pp. 7.—Quantz, J. O.: Problems in the Psychology of Reading. Pp. 61—White, Theodore G.: A Contribution to the Petrography of the Boston Basin. Pp. 40, with plates.—Udder, J. A.: Loess as a Land Deposit. Pp. 8.—Ward, Lester F.: The Essential Nature of Religion. Pp. 24.—Contributions to Hopkins Seaside Laboratory, Stanford University: Geology of the Palæozoic Area of Arkansas South of the Novaculite Region. By G. H. Ashley. Pp. 102; Scientific Names of Latin and Greek Derivation. By Walter Miller. Pp. 82; A Morphological Study of Naias and Zannichella. By D. H. Campbell. Pp. 64, with plates: The Development of Glyphioceras and the Phylogeny of the Glyphioceratidæ. By J. P. Smith. Pp. 28, with plates—United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries: The Fishes found in the Vicinity of Wood's Hole. By Hugh M. Smith. Pp. 30, with maps.—Salmon Investigations in the Columbia River Basin, etc., in 1896. By B. W. Evermann and S. E. Meek. Pp. 72; The Fishes of the Klamath River Basin. By C. H. Gilbert. Pp. 13.—United States National Museum: New Species of Coleoptera, etc. By M. Q. Linell. Pp. 14; Notes on Trematode Parasites or Fishes. By Edwin Linton. Pp. 50, with plates; Notes on a Collection of Fishes from the Colorado Basin in Arizona. By C. H. Gilbert and N. B. Scofleld. Pp. 12. with plates; New Mammals of the Genera Sciurus, Castor, Neotoma, etc. Pp. 7.

Stirling, J. H. The Secret of Hegel. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 752.

Todd, David P. A New Astronomy for Beginners. American Book Company. Pp. 500. $1.30.

Warren, Francis. The Study of Children and their School Training. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 264. $1.



Fragments of Science.

The Effect of Trade Unions on Individual Advance.—The growth of a country in civilization and wealth depends chiefly on the efforts of its individuals. The great advances in modern science and industry have been made by men a little ahead of their neighbors in clear-sightedness and push. Hence, anything which puts a curb on individual effort and ambition is antagonistic to the best interests of society and civilization. The trade union, which in its inception had only a co-operative function, enabling the men in a given trade to help one another in cases of injury, sickness, etc., and to meet representatives of other industries for furthering trade relations and association, has in the modern industrial world assumed quite a different function, whose worst manifestation is the stifling of whatever individuality and push the workman may have, and forcing him to limit his work to that of the least efficient of his fellows. The fact that Brown can do in a day half as much more work than Jones, and do it better, is an item which if known is not considered unless he does it, in which case he is informed that he is doing too much and must "let up." The official amount is prescribed, and no one, whatever his ability, is expected to exceed that. There can be only one result of a system which discourages a man's doing his best, and limits him to the capacity of the poorest workman in the union, and that is to destroy individuality and ambition, the two most powerful forces which work for human advancement. That such is the real effect of the trade union has recently received additional confirmation by the statements of a skilled mechanic who has actually "been through the mill" and risen from the ranks. In the November number of the Engineering Magazine, Mr. Hiram S. Maxim, widely known for his important industrial and scientific work during the past fifteen years, and who began his career as a common hand in a machine works in Fitchburg, Mass., writes on the subject of trades unions. He shows that in every instance the effect of the union is to decrease the work, both in quantity and quality, demoralize the workman, and foster a tendency to soldiering and dishonesty.

The Metals of Canada.—In his address at the British Association on the Metals of Canada, Prof. Roberts Austen showed that the recognition of the extent and variety of the mineral wealth of the Dominion had been comparatively recent, and the development of the related industries slow. This was due partly to the policy pursued by the Hudson Bay Company of keeping the country wild for the sake of the fur-bearing animals; partly to ignorance in the mother country of the resources of Canada; and partly to the difficulty of access to the mining districts before the railroads were built. In speaking of the Dominion generally, the richness of the deposits and the hopefulness of prospects must be kept in view rather than the immediate output; but it should be remembered