Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/757

 SCIENCE AND CITIZENSHIP 741

Is this not true of all those classes engaged in the organization of facilities for travel and communication, from the railway man- ager to the station porter, from the pilot to the bargeman, from the hotel-keeper to the cabman, from the road-surveyor to the crossing-sweeper? And, in less degree, is it not true likewise of the whole trading class, whose business consists in shifting goods from the place of growth and production to their destination in the hands of consumers? For all these, from the city fathers to the crossing-sweeper, the question is : Does each one utilize to the fullest such resources as contemporary geographical science can and should supply? The president of the Royal Geographical Society is the servant of the crossing-sweeper who has the knowl- edge and the imagination to use him.

XVI. What are the sources of geographical science? Where are they to be found? How may the inquiring citizen utilize them? How may the crossing-sweeper utilize the president of the Royal Geographical Society? If the inquiring citizen was fortunate enough in his youth to commence a career of travel and exploration, by frequent truancy from school, then doubtless he acquired habits of observation which later on became disciplined into a scientific temperament. Doubtless, in that happy case, he is thoroughly familiar with the resources of geography. But most of us grew up into respectable citizens uninspired by that fear of the schoolmaster which is the beginning of science. And if we have our scientific education still in front of us, we cannot do better than begin it by buying a copy of the admirable annual called the Science Year Book, issued by Messrs. King, Sell & Olden, of Chancery Lane.

Of the seven or eight sections into which the contents of this publication are divided, there is one called "Scientific and Tech- nical Institutions." A first glance at the contents of this section might lead one to suppose that the book is of a humorous and satirical kind, for its list of scientific and technical institutions begins with an enumeration of "Government Offices." Saving this lapse, the book is to be taken as a serious manual. It enumerates, and briefly indicates the functions of, ninety-nine