Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-03

l6GllOn Oh NltMS OI1 lHt CutIGll UuCS"
tions of society and politics.
All of the propositions treated are
not as dull and uninterestng to the lay
man as the abstract questions of gov
ernment. For instance, one writer in q
recent issue of the Annals discusses the
question of the relation of drunkenness
to the weather, and comes to the con
clusion, after showing his theory by
numerous maps and charts, that bad
weather increases drunkenness ana
good weather decreases 1t. Another
discusses the relation of capital punish
ment to crime, and by the records of
the states shows that the removal of
the death penalty increases the number
of homicides. He shows that homicides
have increased over 400 per cent in
single generation.
Perhaps the most valuable work be-
ing done by the academy is its col
lection of data on various subjects for
the use of state legislatures in the pro-
motion of uniform laws and like OBJ
jects. For instance, Miss Josephine G.
Goldmark has prepare for 1t
schedule of all the existing child labor
statutes in effect in the various states,
and from them has created standard
child labor law, which is n composite
law embodying all the best provisions
of all the most effective measures now
in force in the various states. The
academy early took up the question
of child labor and has done much to
mold public sentiment for the pro-
lection of children from the grinding
and blighting influences of factory and
mine work.
Another valuable contribution which
the academy has made to the litera-
ture of political economies is its COM
parative summary of the constitutions
of / the states of the Union as they
existed at the close of 1905. This af-
fords a guide for the study of the
fundamental laws of all the states,
and was prepared by DR.. James Quayle
Dealey of Brown university. Akin to
this work is that giving in comparative
form the constitutional laws of all of
the European nations. A most impor-
tant undertaking of the academy was
the publication of an exhaustive and
systematic work on statistics, the first
published in the English language, and
the principles therein laid down have
become, so to speak. the American con-
stitution of statistics.
There has been in the past twenty
years a greater popular awakening in
the study of political economy than
there ever was before. There are
about dozen prominent organizations
which are devoting themselves to the
same general objects to which the
American academy deyotes itself. One
of these is the Civic Forum in New
York. Here men and women from all
over the world come to enrich the
economic literature of the country on
the subjects that engross the attention
of the world and of individual nations.
A recent notable address before the
Civic Forum was that of Prof. Paul
Milyoulxov of Russia on January A.
1908. Prof. Milyoukov is member of
the third duma and Travelled all the
way from st. Petersburg to New York
to deliver one address. 1t is probable
that no other man has ever Travelled
so far to deliver single talk to peo-
Pile He was here only three days and
then hastened back TO Russia. He
travelled more than a mile for every
word he uttered in public while in
America.
1t is an interesting fact that a dis
cussion of questions relating TO social
and political economics occupies more
space in current literature than any
one other subject that can be men,
toned. Members of the board of the
Carnegie institution of Washington
have declared that science has been
accommodating information more rapid
ly than man can digest 1T and that IL
would be impossible for any man to
read and assimilate all of the litera-
ture there is on this subject. This is
especially true of political and social
science. Statesmen are studying the
questions of the day, political econom-
lists are studying them; they must be
dealt with by the charity worker, the
prison keeper, the railroad man. the
financial man and dozens of others.
And all of them find time to present
their views somewhere and somehow.
While America looks to her senators
and representatives and the members
of her state legislatures to give force
and effect to what is to become law,
yet the exigencies of politics usually
prevent them from always following
true principles. A man may be
"stand patter," though he knows that
tariff on wood pulp is unwarranted.
Or he may be free trader, though he
feels that some articles need a pro-
tectiye tariff. Legislation is ever
matter of compromise. But 1t Is the
mission of the American academy and
its allied associations to deal with
principles and to emphasize them so
that they may finally be given the eff
feet of law by the legislator. The
student of political and social science
is each year making himself more and
more the advance guard of legislation.