in the carriage of which the freight is small as compared with the value, tends to go by rail-and that to inland points must do so. That which under such a rate regulation seeks water-carriage is of the sort which it is wasteful to carry by land. Then they look out for it that the railway traffic man does not go to the shipper who uses both rail and water and say: "My dear sir, you cannot ship all your product by water, for there are many inland destinations. Why not give it all to the railway?" Or to say to the shipper, when he is told that where the waterway does run, it is cheaper to use it: "Your competitor has given us all his freight. If you still patronize the boats, we are afraid that he will have prompter car-service, than you and such superior facilities generally that you will feel his competition sorely!" As surely as human nature is human, traffic men will do these things if they are allowed to do them and they will destroy the trade of any except the largest and deepest and best-placed waterways. They will do it in spite of the real interests of the railways themselves.

To President Roosevelt's trip down the Mississippi and the speeches delivered by him and the other very able men who made the event the occasion of discussion of waterways, much of the present impulse toward actual work for a duplicate transportation system is due. More than More than any man who has ever occupied the presidential chair, Mr. Roosevelt has made real to himself our great material needs, wastes and national tasks. Some of the most notable addresses ever delivered on such a

subject were made during that trip by men like Lyman E. Cooley, Mr. Harahan, Colonel Vance and others. Mr. Burton of Ohio, however, is the only one who touched upon the chief thought of this article. "What is another thing that has got to come?" said he. "Co-operation between the railroads and the rivers. Stop fighting each other. Supersede an era of competition by one of co-operation."

This is the key to the problem. We have many waterways now, bearing much traffic. ing much traffic. We should begin the era of co-operation, and end the era of destruction in the relations of the highways now in existence-and "do it now." A study of the laws of foreign nations will disclose just and reasonable methods by which men who have capital for investment in boats may be protected against loss by uneconomic competition. The assurance such regulations would give would do more to restore our shipping to river and canal than anything imaginable except deep water; and deep water alone cannot win against unrestricted competition. The idea of waterways-protection may be new to most American readers; but it is set down in the full assurance that unless it is received into the thought of America as it has been into that of Europe, the agitation for most of the waterway projects that claim consideration might just as well stop now. They are meritorious undertakingsunder proper conditions. Those conditions, being matters of law, must be created. That they will be created when their necessity is recognized, no one with faith in his country's capacity and destiny can doubt.

R. EGBERT Ross looked at the world and all therein contained through spectacles of very high power and from the point of view of Science. In spite, however, of his stooping shoulders and preoccupied gaze he was unmistakably handsome. His clear-cut, Greek-coin profile was admirable. The contrast of his short, thick, curling black hair with his white high brow possessed romantic suggestion. When his national fame as a surgeon was considered; when the fact that his name received respectful mention in the lecturerooms and hospitals of Paris and Vienna was remembered, he became a notable figure.

If not from the cradle, then from the threshold of the school-room, Ross showed the nature that was in him. The manner in which the fingers of the baby Mozart sought the key of the harpsichord was not more marked than the fashion in which his fingers fastened upon the scalpel, or the object nearest to the scalpel which he was able to obtain at that period. He conducted the dissection of a dead mouse at the age of ten. When he was fifteen years old a cat which had suffered bereavement of a part of its tail through the vivacity of a party of boys was restored to some sort of feline presentability by him. In fact, however, his solicitude for the animal was not so great as his interest in the "case." That he should have chloroformed the cat and conducted certain investigations as to

the workings of the caudal member before he proceeded with a cure was characteristic.

The natural result was that as a boy Egbert Ross did not attain popularity. An indifference to the charms of marbles could not be forgiven, particularly when the recalcitrant was visibly occupied with books. There was something perplexing in the state of mind of an associate who preferred dissecting a flower to robbing an apple orchard; who took more interest in crystallography than in the breaking of windows.

"He's extremely old-fashioned," lamented Isaac Woolman, his guardian and the executor of the large Ross fortune.

"New fashioned, I should say," retorted the equally authoritative Hon. Edmund E. Dickson who managed the law business of the estate.

"A case where the child is father of the man."

"Grandfather," chuckled Dickson. With the same methodical and careful accuracy with which he conducted an experiment Ross pursued his life. Nothing was left to accident.

was prearranged. The introduction of any extraneous element was out of the question. The false result brought about by the action of any unrecognized quantity was impossible. He appeared to know perfectly what he wished, and possessed the power of reaching the end by the most direct route. Five years after his return from a long period of study in Europe his reputation was much more than local.

"The world makes the mistake

invariably of not carrying its science far enough," he observed in the course of a discussion with Dunbar of the Standard, the one man with whom he was the nearest in approach to the terms of intimacy.

"You mean scientific principles could be applied more generally."

"They're not applied at all relatively. If only less were left to fancy, prejudice, tradition, sentimentality and squeamishness. Look at this matter of euthanasia for example; what a lot of narrow-minded absurdity there is about that."

"You believe in removing an individual

"I believe that an unprofitable member of society should be eliminated like any deleterious growth." "And you would

"There ought to be no more thought or compunction in putting an end to a life which gives no promise of good-which on the contrary causes trouble and would be the cause of trouble, than there should be in blowing out a candle. In fact, you will find that almost all scientists really think as I do."

"But the individual decision-Would any one, for instance, dare to use his own judgment?"

"I'm as competent as the usual judge-as well qualified as the average juryman. I have no hesitation in saying that in a given case I should certainly act as I thought best."

"Ross," returned Dunbar irritably, but not without a measure of impatient respect, "you are nothing if not scientific.'

"I'm always rational, which perhaps, after all, comes to the same thing."

The advent of Miss Catherine Blair can only be said to have com

plicated, not changed, a situation. In fact, that Ross struggled so mightily and on the whole so successfully to maintain a scientific precision of view and calmness of behavior in the circumstances, showed the firmness with which he could adhere to his principles in the face of the most adverse condition. Certainly if anything was calculated to produce confusion, this result was to be brought about by the introduction. of the person in question. Not only had she eyes and hair and a slim, girlish figure the direct reactions of which were beyond the powers of admensuration of any instruments of nicest adjustment, but there appeared to be influences still more obscure in their sources and outside of any chemical or mechanical appraisement. To say even why such and such an effect was produced-to point exactly to the quantitative quality-was often impossible. The most careful observation and investigation would frequently have failed to determine wherein lay the disturbing force of a look or a word or a question.

For the scientific mind to fall in love is always upsetting. However much all else is susceptible of formulation and definition, the action of that strange, irregulated force is not. to be counted on. A tempest in a teapot is a mild and congruous exhibition in contrast with it. The casual bull in a china shop is the right thing in the right place in comparison. That Ross did so well was much to his

professional credit. His trained perception detected manifestations which were apparently inexplicable on any every-day hypothesis. He quickly recognized them as a body of phenomena of unrelated origin and resolutely segregated resolutely segregated them to be studied and dealt with separately.

In no investigation, for example, of the laboratory, with which he had hitherto been engaged, was he obliged to measure the dynamics of a Paquin frock. Still, on one occasion this was the reason she confidently alleged for her particularly brilliant appearance.