396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A SUPEEME COUET OF SCIENCE 



By Professor J. PEASE NORTON 



TALE UNIVERSITY 



IN the government of the nations, political parties and elections are 

 the slow methods by which national policies are determined. 

 Movements are started in response to conditions which seem to require 

 legislation. Gradually, these movements are combined within the po- 

 litical parties in the platforms of which the issues are suitably ex- 

 pressed. If the interests are sufficient in the combination rapidly to 

 propagate the platform, the party comes into power. When in power, 

 by agreement in the congress or the legislature, laws are placed upon 

 the statute books. These laws are passed by the party after careful 

 consideration by the committees having these matters in charge. 



In all this, there is a great waste of effort, because the results are 

 modified by small minorities who are able at tactical points to bring to 

 bear immense pressure on individuals. In this manner, the will of the 

 majority of the people, which is the vague desire to remedy wrongs or 

 to perfect a better method of conserving the prosperity and of increas- 

 ing the national comfort, is thwarted. As a result the laws in some in- 

 stances are a generation out of date. When the situation becomes 

 intolerable, a too radical reaction is inevitable, and, in the end, the 

 peaceful, orderly development of a people is impaired to the great loss 

 of the whole nation. 



Now, many of the issues which divide the country, in fact all coun- 

 tries, into opposing camps are scientific in their nature. Long cam- 

 paigns must be fought to decide policies which are capable of easy 

 solution, if only an impartial court existed before which such issues 

 could be tried. Just as technical questions require technical experts, 

 technical issues require a technical court. The administration at Wash- 

 ington favors the establishment of a court of commerce. Why should 

 there not be a court of science to determine questions of scientific 

 truth, the application and the feasibility of issues based on scientific 

 knowledge ? 



Let us take an example. We find there exists a powerful society 

 with state branches and paid agents for carrying on a campaign against 

 vaccination, which is a scientific issue. The conditions are substan- 

 tially these. Many states have compulsory vaccination laws. School 

 children are being vaccinated on a wholesale scale as a precaution 



