In choosing "The Government in its Relation to Industry" as the general topic of the Eighth Annual Meeting your Committee was desirous of focusing the attention of the members of the Academy upon certain of those questions of government regulation now in the forefront of public discussion. To this end the relations of our governments to banking and trust companies, to the expansion of foreign trade, to the restriction of immigration, and to the control of large industrial and commercial corporations or trusts were chosen as the subjects of the four sessions of the Annual Meeting. Your Committee desires to express its appreciation of the courtesies extended to members and visitors at the Annual Meeting by the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, the officers of the Manufacturers' Club, the Union League, and the Philadelphia Commercial Museums. As in former years, the expenses of the meeting have been defrayed principally from a special fund contributed by friends of the Academy. The generous support received from these sources has enabled the officers of the Academy to enlarge the scope of the meeting and to give to the printed Proceedings a correspondingly broader circulation. The thanks of the members of the Academy is due to these friends of the organization who have made possible the extension of its public usefulness.

SESSION OF FRIDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 8TH.

The Presiding Officer, Honorable Frank A. Vanderlip, of New York City, introduced Joseph Wharton, Sc. D., Chairman of the Local Reception Committee. In welcoming the members and visitors to the annual meeting Mr. Wharton spoke as follows:

Mr. Chairman, Members and Guests of the Academy of Political and Social Science.

As the years pass by it becomes more and more evident that not only is there room in the United States for such an institution as this Academy, but that in fact the information and the ideals which it can disseminate are urgently needed by the people of this nation. The world is growing to appreciate more and more the predominating part which national and personal economy play in the great events which constitute the history of a race or nation.

When our minds are withdrawn from the contemplation of some hero or statesman who seems to have molded the community in which he dwelt, we often find that he was little more than the figurehead, or mouthpiece, of the great mass of undistinguished persons who had reached upon one or more points, convictions so clear and urgent that they were ready to take shape as irresistible forces, so soon as a competent leader arose to make them effective.

It is obvious, for instance, that commercial independence and industrial independence were more the underlying aims of our American Revolution than the mere political severing of the ties binding this country to the British throne.

Every reader of American history very well knows that resistance to taxation without representation, of which the Stamp Act was a conspicuous feature, the Non-Importation Resolutions of American merchants, the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor and the sending back of cargoes of tea from this port and New York were important factors leading to the Declaration of Independence, yet we are rather too much inclined to let our attention be drawn away from these underlying causes by our interest in the actual combat, and our admiration for the brilliant characters of the great men who became the nation's leaders.

Another instance of great historic changes resulting from somewhat obscure causes is the revolt of the peoples of Northern Europe

from the domination of the Roman Catholic Church, which was also due in a large measure to economic causes; namely, the exactions of the Roman hierarchy in draining money from those countries for its support and for its enterprises; among them the building of the great Cathedral of St. Peter in Rome. We have heard in a general way of the begging friars who went up and down through Europe taking toll from the inhabitants, and we have heard of the sale of indulgences by the monk Tetzel and others, but these things have perhaps never been so clearly set forth as factors in the Reformation as in the recent statement by our distinguished fellow citizen, Mr. Henry C. Lea, in his contribution to "The Cambridge Modern History," edited by Lord Acton, in which he describes the condition of Europe before the Reformation, and the causes leading to that Reformation. Mr. Lea emphasizes the important, if not the principal, part which these money exactions played toward bringing men's minds to the point of declaring their independence from the domination of Rome; a matter evidently quite apart from any question of religion.

After giving all allowance to the brave spirit of Martin Luther, it cannot be denied that he entered upon a field already ripe unto the harvest, so that his great work was practicable as otherwise it could not have been.

When an earthquake carries destruction over a great territory, destroying many lives and changing the face of nature, that disruption and that overturning do not result from some cause born at the moment, but the shock is the result of causes which have been quietly operating for years, centuries, or for long ages; such as the contraction of the earth's crust by loss of heat, or the shifting of enormous masses of earth from the various affluents of a great river to the delta at its mouth-either of these causes producing new strains gradually increasing to the point of rupture.

This Academy naturally turns a part of its attention to such enduring and unobtrusive social forces.

Another proper subject for the consideration of the Academy is, I think, the enormous waste and destruction of the several funds provided by nature as for the special use of man, such as the timber forests of a country, its supplies of coal, mineral oil, or iron ore and similar resources. The waste of forests might seem not fairly com

parable to the waste of minerals which do not grow and when exhausted can never be replaced, but, although other trees may grow to replace those which are destroyed, new forests do not, in fact, appear except in a very moderate degree. Destruction not merely consumes the fund of utility possessed by the timber itself, but by altering climatic conditions makes unproductive and almost uninhabitable great regions which originally were well watered and fertile.

Our forests have been most wastefully destroyed and are still so being destroyed. In our Southern Atlantic States, for instance, vast regions of pine forest are now being denuded, principally for the comparatively small fund of turpentine which they can be made to yield, but partly to clear up the ground for cultivation, which latter is largely shiftless and destructive to the elements of fertility which the soil contains. The timber in these cases is wasted by burning, because it is just now too far from easy transportation to compete with that which lies a little nearer.

The exhaustion of coal and iron ores now going on in Great Britain, giving to that country a temporary power to draw wealth from those lands to which its manufactures are exported, is an instance of another sort of waste, which must result before long in the distinct lowering of Great Britain's place among the nations. Hasty legislation cannot be expected to prevent waste of our own enormous natural resources, but a wholesome public sentiment must be created which will lead to abhorrence of the waste and ultimately to such prudent legislation as may diminish it. I shall not attempt to indicate all the various lines of action or education in which this Academy may be useful, but shall conclude by offering to those members and guests of the Academy, who do us the honor to come here from their various homes, a cordial welcome to Philadelphia. We hope that they may find their stay here both profitable and pleasant.

The Presiding Officer announced as the general topic of the afternoon session, "Government Regulation of Banks and Trust Companies." The first address, on "Government Control of Banks and Trust Companies," was delivered by Honorable William Barret Ridgely, Comptroller of the Currency, Washington, D. C. Mr. Ridgely's address will be found on pages 15-26.

The second address on, "Control and Supervision of Trust

Companies," by Honorable Frederick D. Kilburn, State Superintendent of Banks, Albany, N. Y., will be found on pages 27-42.

The fourth address, on "Financial Reports of the National Banks as a Means of Public Control," by Professor Frederick A. Cleveland, New York University, will be found on pages 43–66. SESSION OF FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 8TH

The session of Friday evening, April 8th, was presided over by Dr. Charles Custis Harrison, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Harrison introduced the President of the Academy, Professor L. S. Rowe, of the University of Pennsylvania, who presented a review of the work for the year 1903-04.

Dr. Rowe spoke as follows:

This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the Academy-a period presenting an unbroken record of activity and broadening influence. Through the combined efforts of our members in all sections of the country, the Academy has acquired an educational influence, national in scope, and contributing in no small measure towards the development of an enlightened public opinion.

At no time in our history has the country stood in greater need of such educational agencies. With each year industrial, social and political problems are becoming more complex and with this increasing complexity the dangers involved in attempts at hasty and ill-advised solutions are increased. Throughout the long period of heated and, at times, acrimonious discussion that has marked the development of American public policy during the last fifteen years, the Academy has held itself free from all entanglements and has constantly labored for the frankest discussion at its meetings and for the fullest presentation of facts in its publications. During the year that has elapsed since our last annual meeting, we have published six special volumes covering the following subjects:

1903, May-Problems in Charities and Correction.

July-The United States and Latin America.
September-Southern Educational Problems.
November-Business Management.

1904, January-Tariff Problems--British and American.

NOTE. The third address on "The Relation of Trust Companies to Industrial Combinations, as Illustrated by the United States Shipbuilding Company," was delivered by L. Walter Sammis, Esq., Associate Editor, New York Sun. This address will be found on pp. 239-268.