Page Eight 



EVOLUTION 



April, 1928 



EUOLUTION 



A Journal of Nature 



To combat bigotry and superstition and 



develop the open mind by popularizing 



natural science 



Published monthly by 



Evolution Publishing Corporation 



96 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. 



Telephone: Watkins 7587 



L- E. Katterfeld, 



Managing Editor 



Subscription rate: One dollar per year 



In lists of five or more, fifty cents 

 Single copy 10c; 20 or more 5c each 



Entered as seoona class matter at the 

 Post Office at New York, N. Y., January 

 7, 1928, under the Act ot March 3, 1879. 



THERE'S A DIFFERENCE 



A lawyer is specially trained to pick 

 out of all the facts those that will best 

 sustain his case. 



A salesman is trained to select from all 

 the facts those that will make the best 

 talking points and to keep still about the 

 others. 



A minister is trained to ignore facts or 

 harmonize them with what he considers 

 revelation. 



A politician is trained to discern what 

 facts will have popular appeal. 



A scientist is trained to consider ALL 

 known facts, to search constantly for new 

 facts and to hold opinion in his special 

 field only on the basis of facts. 



NUMBER 5 



APRIL. 1928 



SCIENTIFIC "SNOBBERY" 

 We agree with much of the article by 

 T. Swann Harding in this issue. The 

 aversion of many scientific men to "popu- 

 larizations"' is a fact. This deprives the 

 average man of a broad knowledge of 

 truth, and leaves a fertile field for fun- 

 damentalism. 



. But it is not mere "snobbishness." The 

 scientist must needs employ precise and 

 specialized language in his everyday work. 

 To wiite popularly he must translate. 

 This is difficult. It takes time. And he 

 always has more work than time. 



Besides, popularizations tend to distort 

 and sensationalize. The scientist revolts 

 at distortions. He wants facts, unglossed 

 and unperverted. He devotes his life to 

 get things straight and he wants them put 

 straight. We respect him for this. It is 

 not snobbery. It is scientific care and 

 honesty. 



In spite of these difficulties, or rather 

 because of them, we ask men of science 

 to help produce this journal. 



DEBATES— THE MORE THE BETTER 



In liis Official Organ the Reverend Riley 

 crows mighty cockily over "winning" some 

 debates against evolution. What difference 

 does it make how the crowd votes? Has 

 the reverend a single instance cf "con- 

 verting" an evolutionist? 



On the other hand, we are sure that on 

 every such occasion the seed of evolution 

 is planted in some minds. The more op- 

 ponents are at the debates the greater our 

 opportunity. 



We urge readers to arrange public de. 

 bates with fundamentalists on every pos- 

 sible occasion. The more the fundamen- 

 talists "win" the more they lose. And 

 we can afford to lose a thousand times. 

 WE need only win once. 



WRITERS, WE BEG OF YOU 



Send us less speculative articles on 

 philosophy and religion, the 'Origin and 

 Destiny of the Cosmos, the Whyness of 

 the Wherefore and the Thusness of the 

 Because. 



Let's have more interesting news, facts, 

 discoveries of science regarding the pro- 

 cesses of nature. Less argument. More 

 description. 



(ffniurtthta Slnibfraitp 

 mUtfflitynf^Ictogorlj 



DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY 



APPIT. 2 '28 



My dear Sir, 



Permit ma to offer my congratulations on your periodl- 

 oal. Evolution . They apply both to the idea and its execution. 

 ■Rie present state of the public mind and of discussion as well 

 of projected legislation make it highly important that there 

 .';hould be issued atatenents regarding the various aspects of 

 the evolutionary controversy which can bo widely read and under- 

 stood. You have been fortunate in enlisting as writers persons of 

 unquestioned conpetenoy and having a clear style. I am impressed 

 with the fact that the Jour rial is scientific as well as popular. 

 You are rendering a public service and I wish you every success. 

 Sincerely yours. 



Mi^Me^ci^ 



THE UNIVERSAL TRUTH OF 

 EVOLUTION 



V. F. Calverton 



Y^HILE the idea of evolution was first 

 discussed by the Greeks, and Anax- 

 imander early argued that: 



"Living creatures arose from the moist 

 element as it was evaporated by the sun. 

 Man was like another animal, viz: a fish 

 in the beginning. . . . 



"Man was born from animals of an- 

 other species . . . while other animals 

 quickly find food for themselves, man 

 alone requires a lengthy period of suck- 

 ling. Hence, had he been originally as 

 he is now, he would never have sur- 

 vived . . . 



"At first human beings arose in the in- 

 side of fishes, and after having been 

 reared like sharks and become capable of 

 protecting themselves, they were finally 

 cast ashore and took to land," it 

 is rather in the form o{ suggestion 

 than verification that the theorv was ad- 

 vanced. Aristotle, in his penetrating de- 

 ductions, had subjected about five hun- 

 dred and forty animals to examination. 

 He had conceived of a graded order of 

 life, in which evolution was inherent. In 

 many other phases of Greek thought an 

 evolutionary attitude is to be detected. 



What we virish to stress in this article, 

 however, is that the theory of evolution, 

 although first proposed by the Greeks, 

 does not become a scientific hypothesis 

 until certain material changes take place 

 in man's life. All during the Middle 

 Ages the theory of evolution was unde- 

 veloped. The static form of life and the 

 ecclesiastical influence upon letters dis- 

 couraged the evolutionary approach. It 

 is only with the rise of commerce at the 

 close of the Middle Ages that modem 

 science actually began. It is no caprici- 

 ous coincidence that Kepler, Copernicus 

 and Galileo fall within the loose embrace 

 of this new period. These changes in 

 physical science were closely connected 

 with changes in economic life. 



The Industrial Revolution was, however, 

 the cause of far greater transformations 

 in Western life. We may say without ex- 

 aggeration that the outstanding character- 

 istic of Western Europe during the nine- 

 teenth century was "change." The Indus- 

 trial Revolution was the dynamo that elec- 

 trified the age with new desires and fresh 

 vision. Life became agog with activity 

 and creation. Newness almost lost its 

 novelty. New aspirations multiplied with 

 eveiy dawn. Invention succeeded inven- 

 tion until the genius of the age became a 

 miracle in mechanics. Men became in- 

 terested in the mastery of existence. The 

 machine promised a new world at human 

 command. Once an adventure into the 

 strange and mysterious, science now be- 

 came an open sesame to the control of 

 the universe. The idea of movement and 

 change became an obsession. Evolution 

 became an active doctrine that invaded 

 every avenue of thought. 



The ancient aeons of the earth's past 

 disclosed themselves in geological forma- 



