The Progress., 1893-09-09
TORLD'S CONGRESSES.
,,..test C Conventions of Think
ers Ever Assembled.
,,,V THAT Is GREEK TO MANY.


,.,,au's Exposition of the Aztec Cal
,.r at the Anthropological Congress
The Congress of Religion.
woprD's FAIR, Sept. 6. Especial -
rhsn all this grand show is ended, when
'"',rsaried sightseers have departed and
u magnificent structures have been re-
vi when in short the Columbian ex-
ss.i,ion of 1913 is but history, thinking
psone will realize that this city has this
had the greatest convention of think
vsr gathered on this earth. lam far
thin the truth in saying that the gath
'.,ngs organized by the Worlds Congress
Auxiliary have never been equalled, and
~. very doubtful if they will be within
".o,ber century. If the Worlds fair had
-. been in progress this series of con-
-...sss would have been the worlds event
q this decade.
his often remarked that this is the first
..,bering held here of which the astute
chicago reporters could not give pretty
,.ir report in advance. They cannot even
make funny paragraph of it. 1t may
veil be doubted if there are ten journal
,.,s in the United States who could make
.fnIl and clear abstract of any one meet
ur for each lecturer proceeds on the as
,rmntion that all his hearers know all
,hout the fundamentals of the science he
sdealing with and to 800 men out of every
tnO his talk is even as so much Greek. In
the Electrical congress, for instance, a
,ommittee was appointed to fix the units
A. electrical measure and here is a para
raph from the report adopted:
aAs the unit of resistance the interna-
tonal ohm, which is based upon the ohm
aoual 10 1919 units of resistance of the ini-
tal C. G. S. system of electromagnetic
units. and is represented by the resistance
offered to an unvarying electric current Of
scolumn of mercury at the temperature
Of melting ice, 14-4521 grammes in mass,
da aconstant cross sectional area, and of
aength of 1868 centimeters."
They talked of this as familiarly as
farmers do Of quarts, pecks and bushels
and went on to establish a regulaR table,
Ike any table in compound numbers, in
which the names Of the measures are ohm,
ampere, volt, coulomb, farad, joule, watt
and henry. On inquiry learned that all
these are taken from different nations and
in honor of individual discoverers therein.
The last two terms are for Professor Watt
Of England and Professor Joseph Henry
Of our Smithsonian institution. Professor
George Forbes, chief electrical engineer of
the great work now going on at Niagara
Falls, enlivened the occasion wonderfully
byan address which anybody could under
stand He told us all about the wonder
ful tunnel which is being put through the
rock alongside the falls; how the water
will produce so many million units of
force and how it can be transmitted $50
miles with ease and certainty, as he has
already done that in India, and how it will
rvolutionize the carrying trade and be
the cheapest force in the world. l knew
they had "mehatmas" and "diakkas" and
all the other Blavatskyisms in India, be-
Sdes knowing all about such things as the
soul and eternity and the pre-existence of
the essential psychical essence, but never
imagined they were ahead of us in applied
electricity.
x#%
The proceedings of the Labor congres;
which ended its sessions on Labor day, tn
kh, were much more easily understood,
and were conducted with what L might
call reckless liberality. Among the wo-
men were Miss Grace H. Dodge, Mrs.
Helen Campbell and Lady Emilia Dixie Of
London, and of men the list ranged from
Felix Adler and Carroll ID. Wright to Dr.
McGlynn and Henry George and from
samuel Gompers to Jerry Simpson. The
paper by Samuel Gompers entitled what
Does Labor Want2" is taken as a clear
statement by authority. Mr.. Percy X.
heggy, secretary of the New South Wales
Labor commission, gave an interesting
summary of what had been learned from
ne somewhat radical experiment in that
country. The paper of Senator PETER was
On The Use of Armed Forces in Labor
psputes," and those of Jerry Simpson,
henry George and DIR. Zacher of Berlin, on
nelr well-known views. Every paper was
interesting, of course, because they pre-
snted the carefully stated views OF men
VAC have thought long and earnestly, but
snail have to read them all over in a
quieter time before / can tell whether the
s0rld Is any wiser for them, or whether
ny practicable plan of reform has been
prsented.
s*~
N the Anthropological congress last
vek Que Of the most distinguished per-
ons was lady, Mrs. Xenia Nuttall, who
- gained quite a reputation in Europe
wen before her last crowning achieve
eent, the discovery of the principle of the
amous Aztec calendar. Mrs. Nuttall pre-
ssnted her exposition of the calendar at
eVongress of Americanists held last Oc-
s'oef at Huelva, Spain, and was awarded
soio medal therefor by the Spanish gov
nment. Very complete and easily un-
stood tables illustrating the Aztec cal
. au.f were prepared according to her ex-
s'uon and are now in the eanthropological
apartment Of the fair. She claims that
1's calendar must have been the result of
reo years of observations, because the
.'nute variations were corrected in it. To
s'e TINS In common language, everybody
.aows that the true solar year does not
n.aln an exact number of months,
ss,1 days, hours or minutes and prob
1y not Of seconds; so all the ancient cal