New-York tribune., 1906-04-17
THE FRANKLIN DICENTENARY.

Elaborate honors will be paid this week in
Philadelphia to the memory of Benjamin Frank
lin There is promise that the celebration will
be worthy of his adopted home, of the country
and. since his sphere of usefulness was not
limited by national boundaries, of the civilized
world.
The ceremonies will be conducted under the
auspices of the American Philosophical Society,
which he was largely instrumental in founding,
and a feature Of them will be the comforting
of degrees by the University Of Pennsylvania
with which he was associated. His native state
Massachusetts, will be represented by Presi-
dent Eliot of Harvard University. A lecture by
Professor Edward L. Nichols, which will COM
pare Franklin's theories of electricity with the
modern conception of that wonderful manifesto
ton of force, will constitute one recognition OF
the Importance of a class Of phenomena to
which Franklin gave the most enthusiastic
study. With equal propriety the sympathy and
cooperation of Mr.. Marconi and Sir William
Preece, once in charge Of the British tele-
graphic service, have been enlisted though it is
yet doubtful whether they will be able to attend
The homage of personal presence and of for
NAL addresses from three other eminent foreign
devOtees of science is somewhat better assured.
These are Professor Rutherford. of Montreal
who has made many revelations of the proper
the chair of astronomy at Cambridge and is
president of the British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science. and DR.. Hugo de Vries
one of the greatest of living botanists The
Hon. Joseph II. ChOate has promised to dis
course on Franklin's career as a statesman and
diplomat; and the presentation of a medal on
Friday evening by Secretary Root to the French
Republic through its special Ambassador will
bring the four days demonstration to an i'm
pressive and fitting close.
The most casual consideration of the nu-
merous activities in which Franklin found de-
light and which have made him famous inspires
amazement at his almost unique versatility.
Nature rarely qualities a man to distinguish
himself in several departments of usefulness
unless they are closely allied. Great admins
trative capacity is seldom associated with that
mastery of political theory which is essential
TO the framing of a constitution. Equally di-
verse are the qualities of the practical inventor
and the natural philosopher. The Edisons and
the Faradays are different types. That one in
dividual should have been the inventor of an
improved system of heating houses, the genius
who snatched from the skies the secret of the
lightning, a pioneer in journalism, the founder
of a public library a potent force in the de-
Iberations Of the Continental Congress and the
Constitutional Convention Of 1887, the organ
LleF Vi te hLeTiCaH postal service ana the ven
Grated representative of his country at a for
eign court is little short of a miracle
Dew persons realize, perhaps how much older
Franklin was than the most conspicuous of his
associates in the Revolutionary period His
birth antedated that of Washington by twenty
SIX years, and the difference In age between
Franklin and Adams and Jay, who helped him
TO negotiate the treaty of 1882 with Great Brit
ain, was much greater. When, in 1744 he estab-
lished the American Philosophical Society the
man VINO drafted the Declaration literally
an infant in arms. Franklin had entered upon
his seventy-first year when he appended his sig
nature To that document, and il was nearly n
year later when the first American Minister 20
France entered upon his duties. The last emf
nent service which he rendered to the infant
nation-assstance in shaping it's Constitution