278 THE PRESENT IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE 



it falls upon stony ground when cast into the legal mind. 

 But forget the law and regard the case with an open mind! 

 What is it we are after any way? Is it the profit of the in- 

 dividual employer or is it the expansion of the individual, in 

 so far as his expansion does not stifle the opportunities of 

 other individuals like himself? Proposed restriction of the 

 employment of industrial spies is a further example of a legal 

 innovation that will no doubt be opposed by the mental 

 attitude of legalism as well as by the paid activities of the 

 legal henchmen of the industrial world. 5 



Take the broad problem of vested rights: The scientist 

 holds no brief for confiscation. But what appalls him is to see 

 conservatism, so blind as not to realize that confiscation is 

 sure to come when a social situation becomes intolerable, 

 as during the French Revolution and more recently in Russia. 

 There is a type of mind which never realizes that the reason 

 why men protect property is that protection of property is 

 necessary for the safety of the individual. The individual 

 and his life is the real issue. In the long run, vested 

 property rights can survive only as they square with the 

 right of the individual to life and opportunity. There are 

 lawyers who have the broader view of law. But there are 

 too many of them who think society is static, and that ideas 

 can be restrained by machine guns and policemen's clubs, 

 backed up by legal precedents. 



The influence of industrialism in civilization presents a 

 curious contradiction, in this conflict between the legalistic 

 and the scientific mind. Modern industry has been re- 

 sponsible, more than any material factor, for the spread of 

 the matter-of-fact and rationalistic point of view. The idea 

 of scientific causation has established itself in the popular 

 imagination, largely through the fact that men have every- 



5 The development of the spy-system in industry has been investigated 

 under the auspices of the Cabot Fund for Industrial Research. See pamphlet 

 entitled: "The Labor Spy," which is a reprint of articles published in The New 

 Republic by Sidney Howard. 



