Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/493

Rh. There were reproduced the likenesses of fifty-one individuals connected with the congress. Two parties were thus presented to the public four times; seven, twice; and the rest of the fifty-one, once.

In the selection of subjects for illustrations it appears that popular interest was also considered. Gems have an attraction for many, and so have foreigners. The public enjoys what is picturesque. We all like to know the faces of men in high and responsible positions. All this the editors take into consideration.

Some conclusions drawn from this reconnaissance of what the journals of Toronto produced on the meeting of the Twelfth International Geological Congress, may perhaps be mapped in rough outline as below: There is certainly no desire on the part of the press to misrepresent or suppress science or its devotees. The urgent haste imposed on the work of our journalists naturally prevents them from competing in accuracy either with scientists in general or with geologists in particular, whose productions it may take a lifetime to prepare and several years to publish. The same haste sometimes forces editors to use copy which should be consigned to the waste-basket.

The contents of our newspapers always reflect the tastes and the interests of the general public. In the schools attended by those who constitute the reading public to-day, science teaching was defective. Hence, perhaps, the weak public demand for reading on scientific subjects. The looseness of the elective system in our secondary schools is perhaps responsible for the fact that many reporters are sadly ignorant in even the rudiments of science and altogether incapable of appreciating or describing in the most general way the proceedings of such a body of men as met in America on this occasion.

The undesirable result of this shortcoming of the press in its important function as an educator might easily be remedied by cooperation between scientists and journalists on occasions like this meeting. The press should make sure always to be just a trifle ahead, in knowledge as well as in "smartness," of the public it educates.

The elevated position of the savant, intellectually, does not relieve him entirely of general human duties to his fellow men. In the organization of the mechanism of a general congress of scientists of any group, a press committee would be neither a superfluous nor a disgraceful feature. We are all human. A meeting of this kind should be made to hasten the time when the public will demand reliable reports, not only on sports, trade and politics, but also on science.