Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-14
CLIM ATE AND THE MAN
PROF. MOORE EXPLAINS THEIR
RELATIONS TO VERMoNTERS.

The relation of weather and politics fur
ntshed the theme of the principal address
| delivered at the meeting of the Vermont
State Association last night and Prof. Will
| lis L. Moore, chief of the weather bureau,
| was the speaker. The meeting was held in
| tn, rooms of the Washington Club, ITO
street northwest, and Judge Hosea B. Moul-
| ton presided. There was large attend
ance, Including representatives of congress
sional official and business life here. Prior
to the meeting the board of directors held
| session, at which a number of business
matters were passed upon and applications
| for membership approved. The association
| later authorized the appointment OF COM
mittee to make nominations for the officers
who are to be elected at the meeting to be
held January 10. The present officers of
the association are Hosea B. Moulton, pres
ldent, and Capt. Dolphin S. Fletcher, Mr..
Erastus C.. Johnston and Mr.. Fred A.
Emery, vice presidents Rev. James H.
Bradford, recording secretary; Miss Grace
Ross. corresponding secretary; Mr.. B. F.
wilkins, financial secretary, and Mr.. Henry
I. OHterdinger, treasurer. The board of
directors includes these officers and former
Presidents E. r. Campbell and C. E. Fair
man and Mr.. A. s. Caywood. The speech
o. Prof. Moore was popular exposition of
tho workings of the wheels of the weather
service, with inside views of the mechan-
Ism, of the forecasting work and an inter-
eSting discussion of the precautions taken
to secure the highest possible degree of ac-
curacy in the official predictions of Uncle
SAM and of the way In which climate af-
reefs the individual man and woman and
their value to the state at large He paid
a high tribute to the Vermonters as a peo-
pie. He stamped the climatic environments
of Yankeeland as ideal and at some length
traced the effect of climate and politics on
the making of the best type of citizen.
Among other things Prof. Moore said
i do not want you to forget how much
you owe to political doctrine and to the
meteorological elements, for your wealth.
your power, your good looks and your intel
Iect Render unto Caesar the things that
are Caesar s. You. my friends, are SIM
ply the summation of the climatic and the
polltlcal environments of long line of an
cestors, of which climate Is equally impor-
tant. You give little heed to the air you
breathe, and yet on its purity depends the
soundness of the bone and the fiber of
which your bodies are constructed. It's
thermal conditions determine in large meas
ure your physical potential, and the wide
ness of its daily and annual ranges of tenn
perature inspires you to action that is
largely proportional to the difference be-
tween summer heat and winter cold.
Zone of Great Men,
I'm climate where man needs but little
protection against the meteorological eIe-
nents, and where he may lie upon his bac
off the natural fruit that he needs to nour-
| tsh his body, you will find no Alexander no
Caesar, no Napoleon; you will find no Keep
Ter, no Newton no Humboldt; you will find
no Lincoln, no Grant and no Roosevelt
You Will find neither wealth, nor power, nor
STABILITY of purpose. Neither will you find
human greatness in the icebound zones of
the north, where mans chief concern is to
gather enough fish and blubber to satisfy
his hunger while he burrows beneath the
SHOWS of fierce winters. Here again will
you md a dwarfing of the spirit of prog
ress, 1t is apparent, therefore, that the
most perfect coordination of the physical
ana mental man is found where nature is
neither so harsh as to crush aspiration nor
SO gentle as to lull desire
'Ihat place is midway between the trop-
les and the poles and where political doc
trine allows a free exercise of Individual
opinion, and your progenitors were so for
tuhate as to be born within those geo.
graphic boundaries, wherein nature has Or
GAINED that the human potential shall be
at Its highest, and from which, by law
that Is almost as universal as that of grav-
ity 1t shall flow northward and southwark
without much regard to what our individual
opinions may be as to the ethics of the
questions involved in national expansion.
You can no more restrain the growth
and the development. the expansion of
prestige and power of the American people
than you can reverse the laws of gravity
or cause the Father Of Waters to flow
northwardl"
The address, punctuated with metaphors
and incidents and anecdotes and giving in
clear way an official explanation Of a
service replete with scientific details, was
ioiloWed closely and frequently applauded
rising vote OF thanks was subsequently
rendered the speaker. A musical program,
urder the direction Of Mr.. Fred C. OfCon-
nell, followed.