Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 32.djvu/862

840 earnings. For two years the efforts of this board were successful and acceptable; but, at the commencement of the third year, from causes to which the board was not a party, arbitration was refused by certain roads, and the arrangement was first suspended, and finally terminated. Pending final action as to the continuance of the board, Messrs. Wells and Adams voluntarily relinquished the sum of ten thousand dollars each, that was due them, on the ground that no service having been required of them or given, they were not honorably entitled to compensation for doing nothing.

During the last twenty years few Americans have written and spoken more frequently and more acceptably to the public on subjects connected with the industry, commerce, finance, shipping, railroads, taxation, and labor of the country, than Mr. Wells; and some of his productions in pamphlet form, as "The Primer of Free Trade," "Why we Trade and How we Trade," and "The Dollar of the Fathers vs. The Dollar of the Sons," have attained a wide circulation. Of books, the following are well known: "Robinson Crusoe's Money," illustrated by Nast, or the experiences of an island people in using different kinds of money, 1876; "Our Merchant Marine; How it Rose, Increased, Became Great, Declined, and Decayed," 1882; "Practical Economics," 1885: "A Study of Mexico," 1887. Concerning the latter work, M. Romero, the Minister of Mexico to the United States, writes: "Although I differ with you on several points, and in respect to some of your conclusions, it is surprising to me how well you have understood the condition of Mexico and its difficult problems, especially so far as its relations with the United States are concerned." To which the Rev. George B. Hyde, one of the leading and oldest missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Mexico, adds, under date, at the Mission of Puebla, of May, 1887: "I have, I think, read all works of importance relating to the social and political economy of Mexico; and the 'Study' is the only one that has not either looked with eyes that saw a paradise or a desert. I consider the book the most valuable yet published on the real condition of Mexico."

The series of papers "On the Economic Disturbances since 1873," now publishing in the "Popular Science Monthly," being also reprinted concurrently in Europe, are regarded both in this country and Europe as among the most instructive and valuable contributions that have been made in recent years to any department of economic science.

Mr. Wells's present residence is at Norwich, Connecticut, where he is the owner of one of the most pleasant old-fashioned houses in New England, and one of the best private economic libraries in the country.