Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 109, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 September 1931 — Page 6

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Cut Those Rates Had Indianapolis owned, from the start, its water company, no one would be worrying today about high taxes. The profits that have gone into that monopoly in other years would have cared for most of the public debt. Had Indianapolis added to the water company its electric light systems and operated them for all the people, it is conceivable that the city would pay dividends in some form to its citizens instead of collecting any tax. These two utilities at the present time are taking in unwarranted profits from the city more than will be raised by the combination of community chest and township trustees for relief. Even under the rules of appraisal secured by utilities, the standard of value on which rates are today being charged amount to blackmail of the citizen. These two utilities hold the power of life and death over citizens. Their taxing power is greater than that of government because their penalties are more severe. The family refused water for failure to pay, dies. All that the government can do to a delinquent taxpayer is to advertise his property for sale. The utilities in days of high prices declared that it was proper for them to collect on the cost of reproducing their plants. Under this ruling they have collected on many millions of dollars that were never spent in the construction of lines or in any useful way. They collected on the rise of prices of labor and materials due to the World war. Now that day of high prices is over but they keep on with their extortions and exactions. A public service commission not under control of the utilities would take the initiative. When they fail, the people must. The people should ban together for a real demand for justice before the present adventurers in control of them make further raids on any portion of the public. Borah for President? According to the headlines, Senator Borah may run for President. That is not news. The same story has appeared on the eve of every election since Borah has been in national politics. But the stories never turn out to be true. Obviously there are few men in public life with a better claim upon the presidency. That indeed explains the regularity with which these stories appear. But, of all things political, the nomination of Borah by the Republican party seems to us about the most unlikely. It always has been so. It is no less true today. Borah is not a thorough-going progressive. He is not a Le Follette. He is not a party bolter. But he is far too irregular to suit the party bosses and campaign contributors who dictate Republican nominations. Any person familiar with the present Republican set-up could fill a book with reasons why Borah hasn’t a chance. To name only one: The southern delegates who hold the balance of power are in the hands of Hoover and not of Borah. We doubt that Borah is trying to run. Moreover, we doubt that the progressives are trying in any serious way to have him run. Borah's proposal for a five-year armament holiday was not a partisan political maneuver. It is in line Y/ith his earlier public service in forcing the Washington arms conference of 1921. It is called for, not by personal ambition in our judgment, but by a patriotic desire to curtail the federal deficit and to check the arms race which is leading to war. There is no reason, therefore, why Hoover should fear Borah as an opponent for the Republican nomination. But Hoover has every reason to fear the movement for arms reduction —that is, unless he intends to go along with that movement. By furthering the disarmament movement, Borah is creating a situation in which Hoover either can capture it for himself or be crippled by it. Nothing would be easier than for the President, after all his lip-service to arms reduction, to take the leadership in action. If he fails to do that, and thereby contributes both to the war menace and the budget deficit menace, Hoover certainly will have to answer to the electorate in the next campaign, regardless of Borah. Dr. Klein’s Plan Julius Klein, assistant secretary of commerce, opposes a big public works program on the ground that this would tie up capital “sorely needed” after the depression for expanding luxury industries and new industries. “It seems to me," wrote Dr. Klein to Dr. John Dewey of the people's lobby, “that out of the depression will grow many new industries, which, in another ten or fifteen years, will be supplying what we shall have come to regard as necessities, but which now are regarded as luxuries beyond the reach of even the wealthiest people. “A program of public works, involving several times what now is being spent, would be the most effective means of diverting capital from these new’ industries, which so sorely need it, into public construction, much of which would be unproductive in a social sense.” He added, that labor will emerge with a higher real wage than before the depression. Every one would like to share Dr. Klein’s 'optimism. A few questions, however, insist upon coming to mind. If Dr. Klein thinks that capital soon is to be “sorely needed" to finance the making of luxuries for the masses, what does he think of the HooverMellon scheme of “diverting” $800,000,000 in longterm, tax-free government bonds to finance the present deficit? How does he think the masses are to buy these luxuries, if, as Prof. Paul Nystrom of Columbia university estimates, we now have 40.000,000 poor. 8,000,000 of whom are in dire poverty? Must these become pauperized and made .the sub-

The Indianapolis Times (A BCKIPPB-HOWAKD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Tiroes Publishing Cos.. 214-220 West Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price in Marion County, 2 cents a copy; elsewhere, 3 cents—delivered by carrier. 12 rents a week. Mail subscription rates in Indiana. $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month. BOYD GURLEY. ROY W. HOWARD. EARL D. BAKER. Editor President Business Manager PHONE—Riley 5551. TUESDAY SEPT. 15, 1931, Member of United Press. Scrlpps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

jects of charity while waiting for Dr. Klein's new millenium? If one billion dollars can be “diverted” to pay the current deficit and put Idle men to work on government wages, why can not several billions be spent on productive public works to put idle men to work on government wages? Public Ownership It Is interesting that in Hoover’s state of California there should be meeting on Sept. 28 the national conference of the Public Ownership League of America. It is more interesting that while it is meeting in Los Angeles, stronghold of public-owned water and power, an election will take place to vote bonds for the bigs>st public-ownership project of American history—the 200-mile aqueduct to bring water from the public-owned Boulder dam to fourteen cities of southern California, a project to cost $220,000,000 when completed. Most, interesting will be the revelation that public ownership still marches forward steadily across America. The public will hear the story of 6,000 American cities that operate one or more of their own utilities; of public in Seattle, Tacoma, San Francisco, the San Joaquin valley, Pasadena, Los Angeles and other southern California cities; of big schemes for harnessing the Columbia and the St. Lawrence; of the amazing extension of municipal gas plants throughout the country; of the fights at Muscle Shoals and in Pennsylvania, Seattle and elsewhere; of cities that let their utilities’ profits pay all expenses in lieu of taxes; of Ontario “hydro,” the greatest public power project in the world; of the plans of Imperial valley farmers to own the all-American canal; of government operation of helium plants, inland waterways fleets, 117 power and other dams, two railways, Panama canal and many other projects; of the new domain of land coming back to public ownership through farm depression; of Boulder dam; of many another adventure in community ownership. Pontifical presidential warnings, the waving of flags, the cry of “Socialism” can not halt this movement. When private capital proves itself more efficient, more honest, more public spirited than community effort, then only will it be halted. Id the meantime, it is a wholesome check upon private greed, a stimulus to honest regulation, a-school for co-optration and an opportunity for public service. Gandhi’s Power Gandhi’s radio address from London revealed the man’s power—greater perhaps than that of any other leader in the world today. After listening to his calm avowal of faith in the weapons of the spirit as stronger than physical force, it is not difficult even for occidentals to understand his unique control of the semi-starved millions of India. For humility and honesty it would be impossible to match Gandhi’s address. Other political leaders do not advertise the weakness of their movements and the faults of their followers. But Gandhi has nothing to hide. Fighting, as he says, for the truth and for justice, he confesses to most of the charges made by India’s critics. He admits that India is divided against herself in religious strife. “It is a matter of still deeper humiliation to me that we Hindus regard several million of our own kith and kin as too degraded even for our touch—the so-called untouchables.” He believes that only as India regains her freedom can she revive the glory of her ancient civilization. That Great Britain with all her fighting ships and men much longer can subject India to alien rule does not seem probable. After clash Gandhi advances and Britain retreats. It is hard to shoot down rebels who refuse to shoot back. Such civil war ceases to be glorious, even to the militarist. The most loyal troops object to being human butchers. But Gandhi is challenging more than British despotism. He is challenging the whole of western machine civilization. And of that machine civilization, the United States is the best—or worst, as Gandhi would say—example. If western civilization digs its own grave with destructive competition and wars, another century may see some Gandhian or Christian reign of peace and nonresistance sovereign over the world. Who knows? A Chicago man just has returned from Europe, bringing along a couple of tons of medieval armor. It’s funny that some Chicago man didn’t think of that before. If dresses that button behind are returning, there's at least one thing to count on coming back. Recent financial dispatches from Great Britain indicate affairs over there are in the doledrums.

Just Every Day Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

“T TOW do you rate as a mother?” a newspaper II article, and includes a series of questions by which you may test your knowledge of parental problems. If you are able to answer them all correctly, you may give yourself a perfect score. And even then you may fall far short of being a 100 per cent mother. You may know how the baby should be fed and dressed and disciplined. You may know how the lad should be taught and trained. You may understand all the problems of your aolescent daughter. You may know everything taught in the books and yet make a total failure of parenthood. All our learning is futile and most of our strivings are vain if we forget that the true meaning of motherhood is the giving of life. Not just the breath of the body, but the essence by which the personality and the soul exist. a a a THE average woman makes the mistake of seeing her children always in relation to herself. Therein lies our perpetual defeat. And we long have deceived ourselves as to what the virtues and the faults of motherhood are. We are accustomed to assert that mothers are the most unselfish of beings. Yet the truth is that they always have been and are still likely to be the most selfish, because they are the most clutching and possessive. When our efforts are directed not to the ultimate expansion of the child's personality, or to the finest fruition of his abilities, but to the ultimate merit for ourselves, to the posession of a being who must depend upon is, then we have failed. Your child is an individual. He should be disassociated in your mind, and in his own from you, even though he be your best beloved. This is why being a good mother is the hardest and the saddest task in all the world. From the hour of their birth we begin to relinquish our children to life. *low graciously and how freely we relinquish them measures our success in parenthood.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES _

IVLE. Tracy SAYS:

Restoration of Normal Conditions Is Out of the Question as Long as the World Squanders So Much of Its Income on Armaments . NEW YORK, Sept. 15.—England wants us to stop building battleships, while the New York Sun thinks we should stop building dirigibles. Why quibble over such details? If the plea is to save money, or promote peace, why not go far enough to indicate sincerity? Senator Borah is not extravagant in proposing a five-year naval holiday, or declaring that our naval expenditures have reached a point of madness. tt tt High Cost of War THE battleship Colorado cost more than it took to run the entire navy in 1890. In 1900. right after the impressive victory over Spain, our naval expenditures amounted to only $55,000,000, while last year they were seven times as much. Everything has gone up since dad was a boy, but nothing has gone up quite as much as the cost of war, whether measured from the standpoint of preparedness, or bonuses. tt tt tt Pensions for 55 Years Major o. e. barber, who claims to be 104 years old, is attending the G. A. R. convention at Des Moines, with the expectation of participating in all the parades and dances. His case is worth considering, particularly at a time when politicians are beginning to talk about more cash for the veterans. If history repeats itself, we shall be taking care of veterans fifty-five years hence and some of them are going to need it more than they do now. an a World Is Mortgaged HOW w’e can get so excited over the cost of a loaf of bread, or a suit of clothes, and remain so indifferent to the cost of war is a mystery. On paper, this world is mortgaged for the next half century, yet no one seems to take it seriously. On paper, the taxes to be paid by children yet unborn have been spent, and the revenues of governments hypothecated. Talk about installment buying statesmen have eclipsed any scheme ever dreamed of in that direction. tt tt u Relief or Chaos ON the one hand, we are trying to finance the most ambitious epoch in human progress, while on the other, we are striving to pay for the greatest waste of property and life. Realizing that no one generation could do it, we extend credit to the second, third and even fourth generation. The thing is absurd on its face. Our financial sharps simply have overplayed the art of bookkeeping. Barring intelligent measures of relief, there will be economic chaos. tt tt tt Depression a Warning THIS depression is just a warning. Look at what hac'. to be done to pull Germany through, or what England is doing to escape financial collapse. Look at the record of bank failures in our own country and the margin by which the latest bond issue was oversubscribed. Necessary as drastic economies may be, they can not satisfy the nec-d. We must continue to spend to provide work, but this is impossible if, at the same time, we continue to freeze capital in tax-exempt bonds. The fact that a comparatively few bondholders are drawing huge sums from public revenue to pay for the powder and poison gas of war has a direct bearing on the multitudes of unemployed. The problem is to get the world’s capital back into channels where it will produce work, bread and meat. tt tt tt World in Debt Plot WE are up against an unprecedented situation, chiefly because of the organized economic control. An equally large percentage of the people have been out of work and out of food on many occasions in the past, but on no occasion was civilization ever so completely submerged in debt. The obvious probability that debtors will balk and creditors will have to use force explains most of the arming and preparing. Even second-rate politicians know the situation can’t go on, so they buy more guns, in the hope that, when things go to smash, they will be in a position to collect. Disarmament is out of the question until the menace of debt collection by force has been removed, and the restoration of normal conditions is out of the question as long as the world squanders so much of its income on armaments.

PROCLAIMS RUSS REPUBLIC Sept. 15 ON Sept. 15, 1917, Premier Alexander Kerensky of the provisional government proclaimed the Russian republic as follows: ‘‘General Kcmiloff’s rebellion has been quelled. But great is the confusions caused thereby, and again great is the danger threatening the fate of the fatherland and its freedom. ‘‘Holding it necessary to put an end to the indefiniteness of the state’s organization, remembering the unanimous and rapturous approval of the republican idea expressed at the Moscow state conference, the provisional government declares that the constitutional organization, according to which the Russian state is ruled, is a republican organization, and it hereby is proclaimed the Russian republic.” In addressing a letter to a company what should (he salutation be? ‘Gentlemen;’*

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Over-Exercise Carries Grave Dangers

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia. the Health Magazine. ONE of the most amusing performances ever witnessed by the people of these United States, directly or in the movies, was the cross-country marathon promoted by C. C. Pyle. Just what that was planned to prove, or just what relationship it might have to the general subject o£ health, has not yet become apparent. One of the difficulties with the whole physical culture and athletic movement has been the creation of outdoor fanatics, marathon runners, 100-mile pedestrians and similar enthusiasts who believe that the road to health lies in the exceptional performance rather than in wellconducted and suitably regulated physical activities. No doubt, the 100-mile walker is a healthful person or he could not

IT SEEMS TO ME

IT was a curious speech which Silas H. Strawn, president of the Chamber of Commerce, offered over the radio the other night. Mr. Strawn spoke in favor of greater faith and fewer nostrums. He uttered a warning against “even a drift toward Bolshevism.” Now, “Bolshevism” is a word capable of many definitions. When used by an American business man, it covers wide territory and generally includes opposition to any form of unemployment insurance or even the most rudimentary experiments

People’s Voice

Editor Times: There has come to my attention a certain and definite instance of cruel oppressive measures being used by a coal company of Indianapolis to force its employes to rent houses belonging to the company. It is being reported that this company has given its men notice to move into houses owned by the company or hunt other jobs. Some of these men, being single, have informed the coal company of this fact. But the company, according to reports, has demanded that these men obey the order. If this rumor is true, that coal company is guilty of cruelty, oppression, and of using coercion to force its employes to rent its houses which are reported to be undesirable residences. Such cruel treatment embitters working men and causes them to listen to dangerous and vicious agitators. E. F. MADDOX. Editor Times—Anent the interurban head-on collision on Aug. 14, between a northbound and a southbound car, new type, between Columbus and Seymour, Ind., in which several persons were injured and taken to the hospital. As the writer also was injured, may he not consistently ask for a full, complete, and satisfactory investigation of this entire affair? Imagine with what horror the crew and passengers of southbound car No. 78 saw, in broad daylight, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, to be exact, the northbound car coming, it seemed, at full speed, bound for a head-on collision, as both cars were on the same track. Yes, there was time to think, almost a minute, but the crew of No. 78 was powerless to avert the accident. I hold ticket receipt from Columbus to Seymour, which destination I have not yet reached. C. I. B. HENDRICKS. Editor Times —I would like to say a few words regarding the Farmer's Trust Company bank. Never a word from it since it closed its doors. It seems that poor people who have striven and saved are not supposed to know anything about their own hard-earned money. It's high time people were waking up. Why don’t we do like they do in Chicago? Bring these men to account for depositors’ money and pay every depositor in full. Let s all get together and demand that the receiver and his high-sala-ried assistants give us some action. GEORGE WOODARD.

Fall Practice

■DAILY HEALTH SERVICE

walk 100 miles, but the average man has little occasion to walk 100 miles and does not need the 100-mile equipment. Man, like other domesticated animals, did not always live indoors. Modern investigations indicate that a certain amount of time outdoors is beneficial to health. But outdoor exercise to the point of overfatigue, of irritating sunburn, or of undue exposure to the elements is likely to do as much harm as good. Various authorities have suggested the amounts of muscular activity desirable for persons of various ages. Hetherington of the University of California suggested four hours of muscular activity at the age of 5 years, five hours from 7 to 9, six hours from 9 to 11, five hours from 11 to 13, four hours from 13 to 16, three hours from 16 to 18. and two hours daily from 18 to 20 as the proper amounts. Williams states that one hour

in consumers’ and producers’ cooperation. tt tt n Must Always Repeat IT was Mr. Strawn’s contention that the end of the slump is in sight. He feels satisfied —no, more than satisfied; he is enthusiastic — about carrying on business in the same old way. And to make his case for standpatism, he pointed out that periods of depression are a regular experience of the American community. He identified at least a dozen cycles since 1837. “I can not predict,” said Mr. Strawn, “when we shall evolve out of our present economic condition. But when we look backward and see that in the past we always have come out of depression and gone on to greater prosperity, I am confident that we shall repeat our past experience. I believe that there already are encouraging signs on the horizon.” Mr. Strawn’s guess is as good as that of anybody else. His logic is open to question. It is not inevitably true that past recovery indicates beyond question present cure. One might go. through pneumonia seven times successfully and die of the eighth attack. tt n tt Turn About is Fair Play BUT even if one grants the premise and agrees that somehow, some time we shall scramble out of the valley, the picture which Mr. Strawn presents is something less than enticing. A system which breaks down every seven or eight years hardly can be presented as the last word in efficiency. One would not choose an automobile if it had that same tendency to sputter and go dead at unexpected moments. Everything that Mr, Strawn has said can be used and ought to be used as an argument for new and more radical economic experimentation. It is not reasonable that we should live through the same series of years of feast and years of famine that our grandfathers knew. I would not have my son exposed to this terror nor his children after him. Some method of stabilization is essential, and Mr. Strawn suggests none at all. If there were some sort of evening up, then complaint might be less bitter. If the men who benefited by the years of prosperity played turn about and took the hardest part of the pinch, there might be a certain democracy of experience. But everybody knows this is not true. I never have been able to weep my eyes out over the case of the rich man who must scrabble through with only two motor cars in hard times and sell his yacht. As things have been, prosperity never goes to the foot of the table, not even in the most piping times.

Daily Thought

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. — Luke 6:36: Good Heaven, whose darling “attribute we find is boundless grace, and mercy to mankind, abhors the cruel.—Dryden. *

should be given daily to activities involving the use of the large muscles of the body after 20 years of age, and that anything less than that will result in physical deterioration. Man should not live for the muscles alone. . Think of Sandow! Think even of Bernarr Macfadden! But maybe some people want to be Sandows or Macfaddens. Exercise has the value for the young of stimulating body growth. Swimming, walking, golf, horseback riding, fishing and gardening are forms of exercise suitable to all ages. Competitive sports are available and useful up to the age of 30 years, but serious overactivity after 30 years of age may do more damage than good. Calisthenics, daily dozens and similar exercises are valuable within limitations, but our tendency is to become exercise fanatics if we do not become fanatics about something else.

DV HEYWOOD BROUN

And the man who has to survive hungry days even in periods of greatest bounty is the very same who draws his belt three notches tighter when the panic comes. This isn’t good enough. It may seem satisfactory to Mr. Strawn, but it will not suffice those who live in the valleys much the decade around. tt tt tt Too Much to Live Up To OOMETIMES I am moved to a certain compassion for that other arch standpatter. Herbert Clark Hoover. Under the ordinary course of economic tides. Mr. Hoover might have ambled through one term or even two and have gone down in history comfortably placed among the numerous amiable nonentities who have graced the White House. It was the peculiar pressure of the times which showed him up as such a pitifully inadequate leader. Quite possibly he measures up to Coolidge, Franklin Pierce and Fillmore. But he happened to win election at a time when an emergency broke around his head. And the most tragic part of his failure lies in the fact that before assuming office, his weak** points were put forward as his virtues. Partisans of Mr. Hoover presented him as a man of wide sympathy and knowledge of international affairs. The fact that he had lived long years abroad was blithely advanced as evidence that here was a true cosmopolite. Now it has been demonstrated that Herbert Clark Hoover has borne with him into the very center of the world climax an lowa mind and that he can not ever see beyond the borders of partisan advantage and potential Republican prestige. (Copyright. 1931. by The Times)

Help in School Work Among bulletins offered to the public by our Washington Bureau in the past are a number of titles of particular interest and value in school work. Our Bureau has made a selection of eight of the most useful and valuable of these to students and teachers, and offers them in a single packet. The titles are: 1. Citizenship and Naturalization. 2. The Presidents of the United States. 3 The Presidents’ Wives and Families. 4. Manual for Debators. 5. Common Errors in English. 6. Choosing a Career. 7. The British Parliamentary System. 8. Countries of Europe Since the World War. You can get this packet by filling out the coupon below and mailing as directed: CLIP COUPON HERE Dept. 7, Washington Bureau, The Indianapolis Times, 1322 New York Avenue, Washington, D. C. I want the SCHOOL PACKET of eight bulletins, and inclose herewith 25 cents in coin, or loose, uncanceled United States postage stamps to cover return postage and handling costs: NAME STREET AND NUMBER CITY STATE I am a reader of The Indianapolis Times (Code No.)

Ideals and opinions expressed in this column are those of one of America’s most interesting writers and are presented without recard to their acre ement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.

SEPT. 15, 1931

SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ

Fame of Chemistry's Pioneers May Outlive That of Better Known Heroes of History. THE final chapter of Professor F. J. Moore’s “History of Chemistry” is titled “CliemiMT La the United States ” In it are names of men who helped build the United States. Perhaps the names do not have the familiar ring of those of statesmen, politicians and generals whom we met, on the pages of our grammar school histories. They are names worth knowing, however. Some of them, we venture to suggest, will attain greater importance with the passage of time. In the end they may even outlive the names of some of the politicians and generals you once had to memorize. Let us mention briefly a few of these chemical pioneers, men whose discoveries helped usher in the age of chemistry in which we now live. Chief among them are Priestley, Rumford, Silliman, Morley and Gibbs. The British may object to the classification of Priestley as an American chemist since he did his most important piece of work while still in England. But Priestley, as Moore points out, had a vast effect upon the development of American chemistry. Priestley's story is a fascinating one. tt tt a s Isolated Oxygen JOSEPH PRIESTLEY was a British clergyman who practiced chemistry in his spare time. In 1774, he made one of the greatest discoveries of the day, a discovery which made chemistry as we know it possible. He succeeded in isolating and identifying oxygen. He extracted “air” as he called it, from mercuric oxide, and found that glowing splinters of wood burst into bright flames when plunged into this “air.” Priestley was a Nonconformist and never failed to express his views in public. In 1791, the citizens of Birmingham were aroused by a group which undertook to celebrate the fall of the Bastille. Word got around that Priestley was the leading spirit in the celebration. The mob burned and sacked his chapel and house. Priestley fled to London and went into hiding. Three years later he decided to leave England for America. His arrival in America took on the proportions of a great holiday. He was given an ovation upon his arrival in New York, the president of the Democratic Society of the City of New York delivering an address of welcome. Priestley settled on a farm in Northunmberland, Pa., where he spent the remainder of his life writing a church history and carrying on chemical experiments. And, as Professor Mcore observes, “he inspired others to study chemistry here.” It was Priestley’s discovery of oxygen which paved the way for the explanation of combustion by Lavoisier, the French chemist who lost his head in the revolution. The modern practice of chemistry starts with the work of Priestley and Lavoisier. tt tt tt Rumford's Contribution COUNT RUMFORD was ft character even more interesting than Priestley. His career w r as one of romance and adventure. He was born in Woburn, Mass., in 1755. His name originally was Benjamin Thompson. He attended Harvard College and at the age of 19 married a rich widow. Although he was a major of militia, his neighbors distrusted him, and so when the British troops evacuated Boston in 1776, he accepted a commission from Governor Wentworth to carry dispatches to England. He soon made his way into English politics and became an undersecretary of state. He carried on many scientific studies, however, in his spare time. After the revolution, he started to join the Austrian army to fight the Turks. At Strasbourg, however, he met Prince Maximilian who invited him to enter the civil and military service of Bavaria. He accc’T-*’ the invitation. Later he was knighted by George 111. In 1791 he was made a count of M'*' Holy Roman Empire, choosing the name of Rumford, the town where his wife's people lived in America. He noticed that cannon became hot when they were being bored. This led him to combat the notion then generally accepted that heat was “an imponderable substance.” He studied the transformation of mechanical energy into heat and laid the foundation for the law of the conservation of energy, one of the fundamental laws of modern science. In 1799 he helped found the Royal Institution of Great Britain and later established the Rumford chair of chemistry at Harvard. After the death of his first wife, he married the widow of the French chemist, Lavoisier.