The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

1901.] THE LOCOMOTIVE. 139
The students, who were mainly adults, were assembled at the beginning of each term
and informed that the Doctor and his aids had quite enough to do in giving instruction,
and that the school must govern itself. He recommended the adoption of formulated
rules, so far as these would apply, the rules to be voted for or signed by the students.
This has since been done at the beginning of each new term, and, so far as I know, the
scheme has been a complete success.
The other extreme, that of authority in maintaining discipline, exists at sea, where
a commander is clothed with absolute authority over the crew of his vessel. When he
reaches a port, he is amenable to the laws of his country; but while at sea he is unre-
strained in the exercise of any reasonable, or even unreasonable, function. By tradition,
superstition, and necessity, the system is successful; but it is not one from which suggestions
can be drawn for the management of a works.
One other example may be cited, showing that the natural tendency of people is
towards order and discipline. In London there is a large number of places of amuse-
ment, called music halls, most of which are quite respectable, and all of which are ex-
tensive. The admission fee is small, and the risk of disorder is great, even in that city,
where order is very rigidly enforced. It was discovered that the best way to maintain
order in these public halls is to make the audience itself responsible. A chairman, rep-
resenting the audience, sits in front of the stage, facing the people; he announces the
plays, criticises the performance, and apparently controls everything on behalf of the
audience, to which he appeals in case of a dispute. The theory of the scheme is correct;
the teachers in the colleges and schools, or those who have to conduct a works, should
not be taxed with the maintenance of discipline and order among their pupils or workmen.
In industrial establishments, rules relating to discipline should appeal to the self-re-
spect and responsibility of those to whom the rules are directed. Posted notices of a
paternal or arbitrary form commonly do no good, and frequently work a good deal of harm.
When such posted rules are required, it is easy to put them in the form of an agreement
or request, and to say that the owners or management deem such rules expedient for the
welfare and interest of all concerned.
It must be remembered that at this day, in the higher class of skilled industries,
workmen occupy a position quite different from that which they held in former times,
and sometimes they outrank, whether measured by education or by a fair social standard,
those who employ and manage them ;
but even if this were not the case there would still
be much truth in the old French adage that " Courtesy costs nothing, and buys a great
deal. " — American Machinist.
Are the Atoms Real Things?
In his presidential address, delivered before the recent Glasgow meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, Professor A. W. Rucker dwelt upon
the interesting and important question as to whether our conceptions of the ultimate
constitution of nature really correspond to the actual facts of the case, or whether we
are to regard them merely as convenient images, that serve to assist our thoughts, while
they perhaps do not correspond even remotely to the actual things that they stand for.
His address, although it is interesting throughout, is far too long to be reproduced in its
entirety in our pages; but we make a few extracts from it, which may serve to show its
general tenor.
The three chief conceptions (he says) which for many years have dominated physical