C. A. ELVEHJEM 



think that, if this is indeed true, it is because we as educators 

 and scientists have been somehow delinquent, or perhaps only 

 reticent, in speaking out about the things that deep in our 

 hearts we believe. We have been silent in the face of accusa- 

 tions that we are ourselves mere technicians who are training 

 technicians to fill our shoes in the next generation. We have 

 been accused of erecting a vast monolithic structure of science 

 and technology whose machines are in imminent danger of 

 running off with all of us. We have been told time and time 

 again that even though the threat of war were eliminated, we 

 face, as a nation, grave and nearly insurmountable problems, 

 such problems as dwindling supplies of resources, problems of 

 a burgeoning population, problems of supplying food enough 

 for everyone, problems of energy sources, genetic problems, 

 radiation problems, problems of technological unemployment 

 and too much leisure. Personally, I cannot wholly subscribe to 

 the view that any of the social or economic problems we will 

 encounter as a result of scientific and technological progress 

 will be any greater than, to take an example, the readjustment 

 made necessary by the mechanization of farming or the develop- 

 ment of rapid transportation. The revolutions we have already 

 gone through are perhaps as great as any we will encounter 

 in the course of peaceful evolution of our society. 



Dr. R. A. Millikan, who died in December, 1953, at the 

 age of 85, used to remark that he belonged to the first genera- 

 tion of men in the whole history of the world who have been 

 able to say that physical conditions of living were substantially 

 different for their children than such conditions had been for 

 the parents. It is my personal conviction that the possibilities 

 to which men can aspire are limitless, that we are merely at the 

 beginning of our road rather than at the end. However, I am 

 also convinced that some of the greatest obstacles we must 



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