The Portland daily press., 1882-10-14

Inc meeting then adjourned 70 the evening
session.
| Evening Session.
The tenth annual meeting Of the A. A. W
ended brightly and brilliantly Last evening. A
large audience in which we're many prominent
citizents, was present. There was an attrao.
| tive concert before the hour of beginning by
Chambers orchestra.
Mis- Clay presided and introduced Mics
Mary j. Leonard, who read an essay on "Polit.
ical Economy" clearly and Enthusiastically
put
MISS LRoNARD's ESSAY.
| Political economy, as the term was used by
| Quesnany about the middle of the last century,
| was the science of the natural laws which gov
| ern mankind in their relations to zach other
| to government and to property. 1t is now re-
| stricted to those which relate to property, and
| is variously called economics, the science OF
| wealth and the science of exchanges.
Wealth is anything that has exchange value.
Labor sand services of all kinds are inmate
rial wealth. Credit and the good will Of
business are what is called incorporeal proper
ty. Next to book credits, the most common
forms OF credit are notes and cheques. The
shops where these are most largely dealt In
are called banks. Some idea Of the amount Of
business done by these credit shops may be OBJ
tanned from the Clearing Houses of our larger
cities. The clearings Of the Portland banks
for 1880, we're $40,000,0O0. Those Of New
900, or an average of $121, OOO0 COO per day.
Thirty-eight billions of gold would weigh IA
600 tons Hence we see the economy Of credit
transactions and clearing houses A vast
amount of bank credit as we'll as private credit
never finds its way into the clearing house.
Clearing houses, or rather the banks repre-
scented in them, have been OF great service in
relieving commercial panics, rs 0. G. in
New York in 1873.
The good will of business ,say be valuable
property DIR. johnson, (says Boswolla when
asked at sale in regard to the yalRe of the
property of brewer whose estats he was admin
isterina, replied, 1--WE are not here to sell
parcel of boilers rats, but the potentiality of
growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."
This was his phrase for the good will Of the
business.
A right understanding of the cause of value
will prevent many errors. Labor is not the
cause of value. Producing a thing is net pro-
ducing its value. III labor were the cause of
value. what would be 5he cause Of the value OF
labor? Value is the degree of estimation 1t
is measured by what will be given in exchange
fer tho article valued. There 10 no ssch thing
as intrinsic value. Tho phrase is unloading
Exchange value depends upon haman desire,
combined with the means of satisfying that
desire, or, in economic phrase on demand.
Value prscedes labor. A man must desire
something before he will labor. and he gives
his labor TO attain the object of DESIRE
In accurate ideas of wealth, value, demand,
and the cause of value, we have the fnnda-
mental concepts OF economic SC ence From
this point the science becomes deductivs.
Among the false deductions resulting from
erroneous conceptions in regard to these fun
damentals, was the error of Tufgot, prime
minister of Louis XIV, in laying the whole
burden OF taxation snlsndholders He thought
the land the sole source of wealth. The msr-
no MT vufa naIl Had nd 3 h. Aran
trine of Balance of Trade, were errors which
resulted from the erroneous notion that wealth
consisted chiefly Of gold and silver. People
supposed that trade was Improbable 10
nation unless it received a balance in gold o.
silver, and that what one nation gained by ia
ternationsl trade another must lose. They
failed to see that in trade both sides may
gain, because each may rscsive something OF
more value to itself than that with which it
parts. Quesnay, Adam Smith, and latsr
economists have exposed this error.
A misconception Cd the cause of value has
led to mischievous errors in finance. ThA sx-
perience OF our own country confirms this.
The over-issue OF paper money during our civil
war increased prices and consequently In
creased our national debt by . nesdlsssly large
amount. 1t moreover altered the equities of
every then existing contractl Another wrong
was the contraction of the currency between
1875 and 1879. This caused such fall in
wages and prices IS to compel tens OF thou
baOu5 Oh HONORABLE anu lQQ6Gl PATRONS 10 I&cS
financial ruin for which they wers In no way
responsible. This contraction also Increased
thu burden of national taxation, as il GEM
PEELED people to give more labor to meet these
taxes (none the less SO that tho taxes ara In.
direct and we do not know when we pay
them).
Here political economy is closely linked to
social economy, and suggests problems whose
discussion would take us beyond our limits.
Since human veal or woe .may result from
SO slight thing as wrong definition Of wealth
or wrong theory Of the cause Of vAlue, no
conceptions of the science and their practical
application in human affairs.
Miss Eastman and Mrs. Foster comm snted
briefly on the paper Miss Clay said few
sensible and kindly words, urging young wom-
en- to the systematic study of political econo-
my. Maria Mitchell's study of Sstarn was
read by Mrs Gen. Landsrs of Washington.
II does not often fall to the lot of scientific
essay to be read with such graceful elccution
aud dramatic fervor. Mrs. Landers, before
reading the essay. paid glowing tribute to
Maria Mitchell.
PROF. MITCHELLs ESSAY.
The specialist never believe that his subject Is
narrow to him it widens and widens. When the
Theological professor said to the astronomer that
his department was the Old Testoment, the astrono-
mer replied, $50 is mine, with the difference that
mine is older" On the other hand, when the as
tronomsr bsasted to the entsmologist that mis- de.
partment covered the whole earth the entomologist
said, t1nsects do
have perceived in studying the planet Saturn.
how many incidental questions come up in other
departments of Physical science, 1 must know some
thug of chemistry, of natural philosophy and es-
pecialy Of celestial mechanics and mathematics
Saturn alone showed itself a universe made M Of
systems within systems.
To the eye Saturn is far less conspicuous than
Jupiter. 1t is smaller it shines with pale white
light: it might be mistaken for of tine countless
stars The first ook with telescope is revela-
ton.
Like Jupiter it has its satellites like Jupiter it
has bands crossing its surface nearly parallel 70 Its
equator, but unlike every other planet see it is
surrounded by ring generally so inclined that it
stands out like plateau IN front Of the planet 1t
is net ring but bottomless PLAGUE why IL Saturn
thus girdcd about like High Priest among the Host
of the irmament2 This ring is so pssitsd around
he ball that permanencs of relative position Of ball
and ring Ia secured. In a few hours ball and ring
turn around on their axes and show TO different
faces; but another change is going en- slowly. In
years. that of the inclination OF the ring to eur line
of sight From this change of inclination the ring
isnow broad flowing river of light sur
rounding the Ball. the position of Earth Saturn and
Sun changes and anon it is silver thread crossing
the glowing disc, and once In the average life of
man, it defes the power Of ordinary glasses it pre-
sents its edge directly to and we cannot see it
Saturn divested of its grdle and 1t shines like
Jupiter.
We say ring but the Ring is made up of many
An ordinary glass will show that this broad Cat
ring divided and dark bands of sky show through
the opening riffs marrow ring seems to have sep
arated from the original az If parting the close
companienship; the most powerful telescopes show
other separations. We detect these ceveages MAIN
ly at the extremites of the longer axis of the plane
of the Ring.
Separating from the inner edge Of the plane of the
Ring is what is called the Dusky Ring seeming to
bend toward the Ball. Rejecting little light, it ex-
tends wide surface toward the Ball, seemingly
shelving like the sea-shore toward the ocean: and
when obliquely it appears to lie upon the Ball
and long talked of as shadow, although no light
was there sea or land to cast shadow in that di
rection.
There can be little doubt that this crape-like
dusky ring has changed in the last century. Are
these changes the result of the action of the Ball
unon the suhstanee of the Rinoo