Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-09-07
GREAT THINKERS.
The Worlds Fair Congresses
Calling Them together.
Their Scientific Talk is Greek to
Some Listeners.
~ ksesssl labsrsst II ~ ceaerses q -
lloieas.

these magnificent structures have been re
moved. when in short the Columbian ex
position OF '9S is but history, thinking
people viii realize that this city has this
year had the greatest convention of think.
srs ever gathered ON this earth. am fal
within the truth in saying that the gath
erings organized by the Worlds Congress
Auxiliary have never been equalled, and
it Is very dcahtful IL they will be within
another century. II the Worlds fair had
aot been in progress this series Of con.
yresses would have been the worlds event
Of this decade.
1t Is often remarked that this is the first
gathering held here of which the astute
Chicago reporters could not give pretty
fair report in advance. They cannot even
make funny paragraph Of 1t. 1t Iaay
we'll be doubted il there are ten Journal.
lists In the United States who could N AXE
Il full and clear abstract of any one meet
ing. for each lecturer proceeds on the as-
sumption that all his hearers know all
about the fundamentals Of the science he
is dealing with and to 3se men out of every
100 his talk is even as SO much Greek. In
the Electrical congress, for instance. a
committee was appointed TO fix the units
of electrical measure and here is a para
graph from the report adopted:
"As the unit Of resistance the interna-
tionai ohm, which is based upon the ohm
equal to 1919 units of resistance of the ini-
a .F. al. Il,
units, and is represented by the resistance
offered to an unvarying electric current of
a column Of mercury at the temperature
of melting ice, l+a52i grammes in mass,
Of a constant cross sectional area, and Of
q length Of 1858 centimeters."
They talked OF this as familiarly as
farmers do of quarts, pecks aud bushels
and went on to establish regular table,
like any table in compound numbers. In
which the names Of the measures are ohm,
ampere, volt, eoulomb, farad, joule, watt
and henry. On inquiry learned that all
these are taken from different nations and
in honor Of individual discoveries therein.
The last two terms are for Professor Watt
Of Eng land 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
by an address which anybody could under
stand. He told us all about the wonder
full 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, us he has
done that in India. and how it will
revolutionize 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-
sides knowing all about such things a. the
soul and eternity and the pre-existence Of
the essential psychical essence, but l never
imagined they were ahead Of US In applied
electricity.
The proceedings of the Labor congress,
which ended its sessions on Labor day, the
ith. were much more easily understood,
md were conducted with what l might
sall reckless liberality. Among the wo-
men were Miss Grace II. Dodge, Mrs.
Helen Campbell and Lady Emilia Dixie Of
London, and of men the list ranged from
Felix Adler and Carroll ID. Wright to DIR.
McGlynn and Henry George and from
samuel Gompers to Jerry Simpson. The
paper by Samuel Gompers entitled "Vhat
Does Labor Wants" is taken as a clear
statement by authority. Mr.. Percy X.
Meggy, secretary Of the New South Wales
Labor commission. gave an interesting
summary Of what had been learned from
the somewhat radical experiment in that
countrv. The paper of Senator PETER was
IN 9Th, Use of Armed Forces in Labor
Disputes" and those of Jerry Simpson,
Henry George and DIR. Zacher of Berlin, on
their " Unknown views. Every paper was
interes ing. Of course. because they PIE
.ented he carefully stated views of men
who have thought long and earnestly, but
/ shall have to read them all over In
quiete. time before | can tell whether the
world i any wiser for them, or whether
any pr -cticable plan Of reform has been
preset ed.
In the Anthropological congress last
week ne Of the most distinguished per-
sons " as a lady, Mrs. Xenia Nuttall, who
had grined quite reputation in Europe
even before her last crowning achieve
ment, the discovery of the principle Of the
famou Aztec calendar. Mrs. Nuttall pre-
sented her exposition of the calendar at
the c, ngress of Americanists held last Oc-
tober t Hueiva. Spain, and was awarded
a gold medal therefor by the Spanish gov
ernmcnt. Very complete and easily un-
tables illustrating the Aztec cal
endar were prepared according to her ex-
position and are now in the eanthropological
depaI tment of the fair. She claims tina.
this Ilendar must have been the result OF
( 600 years OF observations. because the
MINI variations were corrected in 1t. To
state this in common language, everybody
knows that the true solar year does not
rontsin an exact number of months,
weeks, days, hours or minutes and prob
ably not Of seconds; so all the ancient cal
endaTs soon got out of gear, and at one
time the Romans were so far behind that
the battle Of Cannae was set down as hav-
ing occurred in June though it certainly
was fought In the dog days.
Now Mrs. Nuttali claims that observa-
tions must have extended over 800 years
to correct all the little variations and
make out tree year, and the most con-
scholars who have examined her
system say that at least | 900 years Of con-
tinuous observations were necessary. she
also says (hut could not understand the
proof Of it) that besides the sun and moon
the annual motions Of Venus, Mars and
Jupiter were correctly laid down in the
Aztec calendar, that the system is radi-
eaIly different from any other known and
must have originated On this continent
ard hence all notions about Aztec or Tof
fec civilization coming from the Old
World must be abandoned; but Il wefe
tmart enough to explain her explanation
should be too smart to be writing letters
on salary. IL may interest some people
to learn that Mrs. Nuttall Is but middle
aged, fairly good looking, quite wealthy
and a native Of San Francisco.
s..
The Congress Of Religion now IN session
b necessarily organized on different plan
from the others. There are general meet
fngs for hearing the e1ponents Of each
faith, but as sepa E.te meetings Of 70 many
sects are not pracyable In the Art Insti-
tute building. those Of the Christians are
held in the city churches. This congress
will be Of much greater length than any
other in the series, and as soon ~ IL ends
the Christians will begin another series
for discussion Of matters Of special inter-
est to themselves. Thus on Sept. - there
viii be congresses Of all the missionary
societies. to be followed a once by . gen
eral congress on the Sunday Rest. When
there are ended there will be . congress Of
the Young Mems and women's Christian
associations. beginning Oct 9, Of the Evan
geiicai alliance Oct. sth, and Of the So
ciety Of Christian Endeavor Oct 9th, TO be
followed By several CONGRESSES Of ethical
examinations which viii very appropri-
ately end this very remarkable congress.
It goes without saying that the results Of
such . comprehensive discussion Will be
noted with the keeuesx futereu6. pDk only