1938: Geography

Meetings.

The Fifteenth International Congress held in Amsterdam, July 18-28, constituted the outstanding event in the field of geography for the year 1938. A thousand geographers gathered from the various countries of the world, among them more than seventy from the United States, to hold the most successful meeting in the history of the International Geographic Union. Ten sections — Cartography, Physical Geography, Oceanography, Human Geography, Economic Geography, Colonial Geography, Historical Geography and History of Geography, Geographical Landscape, Methodology and Education, and Biogeography — had been organized, and each section held its own meetings. Special sessions of all the members were also arranged. The papers had been prepared in advance, abstracted, and summarized in a single volume entitled 'Reports.' They have also been published in full in ten different volumes entitled 'Proceedings.' These several publications are valuable.

The meeting was opened officially on July 18, when Rear Admiral Hjr. G. L. Schorer, and Dr. J. R. Slote-maker de Bruine, the Minister of Instruction, Arts, and Sciences, representing Queen Wilhelmina, welcomed the members of the Congress. Sir Charles Close of Great Britain, President of the Congress, responded, and gave the opening address. He also introduced the chiefs of the German. United States, French, Italian, and Polish delegations.

Besides the sessions at which the papers were presented, the Congress included six major excursions, one before and five after the sessions of the Congress. An outstanding feature of the entertainment was an evening excursion to an old feudal castle and park about 200 kilometers south of Amsterdam where dinner was served.

The new president of the International Geographical Union is Prof. E. de Martonne of Paris, and the new Secretary-General is Prof. P. L. Michotte of Louvain, Belgium. Sir Charles Close, the retiring president becomes first vice-president and represents Great Britain. Dr. C. H. Birdseye of the United States Geological Survey Topographic Sections replaced Dr. Isaiah Bowman as vice-president representing the United States. The place of meeting for the next International Congress in 1942 was left to the new executive committee. Belgium invited the next meeting, but because the Union has an unwritten law not to hold successive congresses in contiguous lands the invitation could not be accepted.

In December the National Council of Geography Teachers and the Association of American Geographers held their meetings simultaneously in Boston and Cambridge. The 25th annual meeting of the National Council was held at the Parker House, on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 27-28, President J. R. Whitaker of the University of Wisconsin presiding. The guest speaker the afternoon of the first day was Dr. W. W. Atwood, of Clark University, who presented a travelogue. 'From Cape Town to Mombasa,' illustrated by remarkable moving pictures of the country which he had traversed the preceding summer. At the annual dinner the distinguished service award was presented to Dr. George J. Miller, editor of the Journal of Geography. Dr. George B. Cressey of Syracuse University gave the dinner address. 'The Changing Siberian Landscape.' Dr. Edwin J. Reeder of the University of Illinois was elected president to succeed J. R. Whitaker.

The 35th annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers was held in the Institute of Geographical Exploration, of Harvard University. It opened Tuesday afternoon. Dec. 27. The program was divided into a series of sections on special topics, beginning with 'The City of Boston,' continuing with 'Methodology,' 'Surface Features,' 'Urban Geography,' 'River Development of the Nashville-Chattanooga Area,' 'Geomorphology,' 'Geography and History,' 'Climatology and Hydrology,' 'Land Utilization,' and other subjects. The annual symposium, in which members only take part, was held on Wednesday evening in the lounge of the Harvard Faculty Club. The discussion centered about the geography of the New England region. The 35th annual banquet, held at the Parker House in Boston on Thursday evening was followed by the presidential address by Vernor C. Finch of the University of Wisconsin, on 'Geographical Science and Social Philosophy.' Two field excursions were conducted, one to the Babson Institute for the inspection of the giant relief model of the United States, under the leadership of Dr. Wallace W. Atwood, Jr., and another to the Custom House tower and downtown Boston under the direction of Dr. Derwent S. Whittlesey.

Among the special papers presented was a report on the 15th International Geographical Congress at Amsterdam in July, given by Dr. Claude H. Birdseye, who was later elected president of the Association of American Geographers for the ensuing year; others included 'Geographical Factors in the Distribution of Typhus Fever in the United States' by W. B. Brierly of Clark University: 'James Weddell Revealed as a Fake Explorer of the Antarctic' by Prof. W. H. Hobbs of the University of Michigan: 'The Farm Price of Wheat in the United States in Relation to the Major Routes to Market' by Prof. Nels A. Bengtson of the University of Nebraska.

More than 300 geographers attended the Association meetings, and a large number took part in the programs and discussions. The increased general attendance indicated the growing interest in geography.

Publications.

The National Geographic Magazine remains, as it has been for many decades, the medium whereby geographic interest is popularly created and maintained among a wide range of readers throughout the country, as well as in some measure among professional geographers and geography teachers.

For the professional geographer, or for the scholar and scientist in related fields, the Geographical Review, official organ of the American Geographical Society, retains its place of first importance. Embracing the whole field of geography and occasionally including material from related fields as well, the Geographical Review probably holds first place among such publications the whole world over. Under the able editorship of Dr. Gladys Wrigley, it presents only the most carefully selected and the most authoritative geographical papers. Its contributors are from all countries of the world and represent fields of geographic interest as wide apart as Antarctic exploration and national maps of the United States. Not only does it present annually a great body of original research and exploration, but it presents all the significant events of geographical interest and value, and reviews critically the new books that appear in the field.

Economic Geography — like the Geographical Review a quarterly publication — confines its field of material to the subject matter suggested by the title. The various phases of land utilization and agriculture, of manufacture, of trade and transportation, and of such allied fields as having a bearing upon economic problems, form the subject matter of the magazine. It draws a great deal of its material from all parts of the world, but a major part comes from North America, as do most of its contributors.

The Journal of Geography, now in its 37th year, remains the particular organ of the teachers of geography of the United States. As is natural in such a publication, many of its articles relate to methods and technique of teaching — how to use the various devices by which the interest of children may be aroused and maintained in geographic subjects. A great deal of attention is devoted to the promotion of satisfactory grade-school teaching, both in the factual material presented and the discussions of methodology. The text is kept at high-school and grade-school level in most of the articles, though now and again an important major contribution in some regional or topical field is distinctly of college quality.

The Association of Pacific Coast Geographers issues annually a year-book that summarizes the activities of its members, and treats of the region included within its own territory. The Texas Geographic Society issues the Texas Geographic Magazine, chiefly concerned with its own territorial problems. The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia, now in its 35th year, not only publishes much geographic literature of value and interest, but also represents the activity of a municipal group interested in the field of geography.

In addition a great number of publications in fields more or less closely allied to geography, issue their own magazines. These include Foreign Affairs, the organ of the Council of Foreign Relations, which deals with problems and questions in connection with the foreign relationships of the United States; Pacific Affairs, issued by the Institute of Pacific Relations and concerned primarily with the situation in lands bordering the Pacific; The Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics, published by Northwestern University; and many other similar magazines.

Geography and Economics.

In many fields the principles and technique of geography are being applied to practical problems. Much of the work of the Soil Survey is distinctly geographic in character. Soil conservation work involves fundamentally a large part of the material which the geographer has for many years monopolized as his own. The relationships of terrain, climate, natural vegetation, and other physical and biological factors to the processes of soil formation and development, as well as similar geographic relationships between soils and the life that they support directly or indirectly, have long been considered an essential part of geography. The present great interest in soil conservation and land planning emphasizes the need of geographic information and the value of geographic technique in field and office work. The yearbook of the Department of Agriculture for 1938, Soils and Men, is in many respects a geographic treatise, as whole sections of its subject matter are distinctly geographic in origin and character. It constitutes an exhaustive and comprehensive treatise on the whole subject of soils science and soils economy. (See also SOIL CONSERVATION.)

Much of the work of soil conservation is similarly geographic in character, and the numerous publications which have appeared during 1938 have had a distinct geographic savor. Miscellaneous Publication No. 321 'To Hold This Soil' is a striking example of the application of geographic principles to the control of soil erosion and the conservation of soil fertility.

In Canada, too, applied geography is a part of many of the projects which are being carried on by the Canadian Government for the exploitation and development of the resources of that vast country. Canadian Frontiers of Settlement, a series of nine volumes which will present the results of as many research projects in Canada, has already been issued in large part, seven volumes having appeared. This great series was organized by Dr. Isaiah Bowman, formerly director of the American Geographical Society and now president of Johns Hopkins University, in cooperation with the Canadian Government. The editors are W. A. Macintosh for Canada, and W. L. G. Joerg representing the American Geographical Society. When the series is completed it will constitute one of the most important studies of the land economy of a country that has ever appeared.

Another equally important series, 'The Relations of Canada and the United States,' is being prepared under the direction of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of Economics and History, and a number of its important volumes, nine in all, have appeared. Two more are scheduled for early publication. These volumes include geographic material associated with history, and are of tremendous importance to the future association of the United States and Canada in social, economic, and political activities.

Cartography.

One of the most important contributions to geographic literature in 1938 was General Cartography by Dr. Erwin Raisz, instructor in cartography, Institute of Geographical Exploration at Harvard University. It constitutes the first American contribution of importance in this underlying phase of geography, and represents a milestone in the progress of American geographical study. It is likely to open up a great field of development in cartographic science in the United States.