SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN AMERICA 



sense of uniformity in nature finds expression in national character, — in 

 commercial honesty, in personal probity, in unparalleled patriotism, as 

 well as in the unequaled workmanship which is the simplest expression 

 of straight thinking. Every step in our national progress has been guided 

 by the steadfast knowledge born of assimilated experience. The trebling 

 of population in a half-century, raising the republic from an experiment 

 in state-making to a leading place among the nations, is the wonder of 

 history; the thrice-trebled wealth and educational facilities gained 

 through application of new knowledge are a marvel, before which most 

 men stand dazzled at home, and wholly blinded abroad; the three times 

 thrice-trebled knowledge itself, hitting the nation high in enlightenment 

 and making way for still more rapid progress, is a modern miracle 

 wrought by scientific work; but greatest of all in present potency and 

 future promise is the elevation of moral character attained by that sense 

 of right thinking which flows only from consciously assimilated experi- 

 ence, — and this is the essence of science now diffused among our people. 



B, 



A statesman's foreboding— elihu root 



CElihu Root had served under Theodore Roosevelt as Secretary of 

 State and Secretary of War. Better than most Americans he knew the 

 ingredients of national power, and better than most politicians and diplo- 

 mats he had an awareness of the nature of science. Root delivered this 

 statement on Mav 29, 1918, just as the war effort was reaching its climax. 

 Does he view Germany's use of science ia the same way as Whitehead 

 did in the first selection? (Elihu Root, "Industrial Research and National 

 Welfare," Science, N.S. XLVIII [1918], 532-34.)] 



I HAVE no justification for expressing views about scientific and in- 

 dustrial research except the sympathetic interest of an observer for many 

 years at rather close range. One looking on comes to realize two things. 

 One is the conquest of practical life by science; there seems to be no 

 department of human activit\^ in which the rule of thumb man has not 

 come to realize that science which he formerly despised is useful beyond 

 the scope of his own individual experience. The other is that science like 

 charity should begin at home, and has done so ven^ imperfectly. Science 

 has been arranging, classifying, methodizing, simplifying everything ex- 

 cept itself. It has made possible the tremendous modem development of 

 the power of organization which has so multiplied the effective power of 

 human effort so as to make the differences from the past seem to be of 

 kind rather than of degree. It has organized itself very imperfectly. 

 Scientific men are only recently realizing that the principles which apply 

 to success on a large scale in transportation and manufacture and general 

 staff work apply to them; that the difference between a mob and an 

 army does not depend upon occupation or purpose but upon human na- 

 ture; that the effective power of a great number of scientific men may 

 be increased by organization just as the effective power of a great num- 

 ber of laborers may be increased by military discipline, 



[56] 



