Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/457

Rh the people of that section would be much more interested in securing instruction for its extermination than the New Englander. Manufacturing interests in the state of Rhode Island would demand in many respects very different treatment from the coal mining sections of Pennsylvania, and each of these would fluctuate in local and general interest.

In short, the Department of Public Betterment should not only stand ready to answer rightly questions of public interest, but, further, take an active part in their just solution and adjustment.

In view of these considerations it would be unwise to keep a fixed number of lecturers constantly employed, but secure, as the demand developed, the men necessary for the work.

It may be urged that the daily press in a measure already does the work aimed at. In reply to this contention, it should only be necessary to call attention to the growing distrust prevalent regarding the reliability of newspaper science and sociology. Moreover, from the earliest times, the instruction given by word of mouth has always been more eagerly sought after, and has proved more fruitful in results than the printed page.

The objection may be raised that political preferment and intrigue will soon permeate, and finally paralyze, the department's activities. In answer to this, we need but call attention to the United States Supreme Court, against which similar prophecies have been made, only to be unfulfilled. No intelligent person has ever entertained a suspicion that political evil ever invaded the sanctity of that august body. If, as is entirely practicable, the same great care be exercised regarding the selection of the members of this board, and the preservation of its political isolation, no anxiety need be felt with regard to its integrity, and the efficient and impartial exercise of its functions.

It should be the duty of the Department of Public Betterment to make a careful study of the needs of the people, and supply them with necessary information whereby they may secure their own betterment. This is now done in a limited way for certain classes. For example, the Department of Agriculture, the annual expense of maintaining which is about $6,000,000, has experiment stations scattered through the land which investigate the special needs of the farmers of different sections, and as rapidly as information is secured it is printed and given as wide distribution among agricultural and similar interests as its character warrants. It is well known that this policy has not only saved to the individual farmer the expense of personal experimentation, but has been the means of enriching him, and has incidentally developed the productiveness and increased the acreage of farm lands of this continent, reduced the price of foodstuffs, and put many millions into the public treasury. Why should not this same thing be