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EVOLUTION 



February. 1931 



Scienttfic Adri'ory Board 



Henry E. Crampton 

 Martin Dewev 

 Wm. King Gregory 

 Paul B. Mann 

 Elihu Thomson 



EUOLUTION 



A Journal of Nature 



For popular education in natural <:cience 



to combat bigotry and superstition 



and develop the open mind 



Science Editor 

 Allan Broms 



Managing Editor 

 L, E. Katterfeld 



Contributing Editors 

 Edwin Tenney Brewster 

 Maynard Shipley 

 Horace Elmer Wood II. 



ANEW CHAPTER BEGINS with this issue. A number 

 of most eminent scientists have consented to act as mem- 

 bers of a Scientific Advisory Editorial Board; Prof. Henry E. 

 Crampton. Iiead of the Zoology Department in Barnard Col- 

 lege; Dr. Martin Dewey, Presidenc-tlect of the American Den- 

 tal Association; Dr. Wm. King Gregory, Professor of Verte- 

 brate Palaeontology at Columbia University and Curator of 

 Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History; 

 Dr. Paul B. Mann, President of the New York Association of 

 Biology Teachers; Dr. Elilm Thomson. Consulting Engineer 

 of the General Electric Company. 



MORE THAN TWENTY THOUSAND new readers 

 are expected to receive this issue of EVOLUTION. As 

 an introduction we therefore state again oar aims: The purpose 

 of EVOLUTION is to combat bigotry and superstition by 

 popularizing natural science; to replace dogmatism with the 

 scientific method; to champion the right of schools to teach 

 whatever science discovers, and to maintain the duty of teach- 

 ers to do so no matter how this conflicts with preconceived pre- 

 judice; to achieve a larger place for science in education; to 

 develop a general interest in natural science among the people, 

 and to encourage the growing sense of social responsibility 

 among scientists. For the attainment of these ends we invite 

 the active co-operation of every reader. 



A CERTAIN PROFESSOR HAS REFUSED to renew 

 his subscription because "the name, Evolution, is too 

 radical. The very word, evolution, antagonizes. It does more 

 harm than good." This same professor has written a biology 

 text book without mentioning evolution and actually boasts of 

 its approval by fundamentalist school boards. 



Such a professor, no matter how eminent, is a disgrace to 

 his profession. For the fundamentalist who opposes teaching 

 evolution because he honestly believes that the eternal welfare 

 of h'.s children is involved, we have respect and sympathy even 

 while we attack his illusions. But for a scientist, who knows 

 evolution to be a fact, yet deliberately bears false witness in 

 order to sell more of his books, we have no regard at all. 



It may be "good business" to please backward school-boards 

 in this way, but it is not honest. To hide the truth because of 

 fear of opposition is moral cowardice. To hide it out of re- 

 gard for profit is intellectual dishonesty. Instead of feehng 

 proud of it and pressing us to follow his example, the pro- 

 fessor should feel the blush of shame upon his cheeks. 



No — Evolution will not resort to such subterfuge. Evolu- 



tion will not equivocate, will not compromise, will not trim 

 and hedge and hide. Evolution will always come out boldly 

 v.'ith the facts. Naturally, those that prefer mental bootlegging 

 to this straight forward policy, will refuse their support. But 

 this very condition proves the necessity for Evolution and 

 makes us all the more determined to give the solid grain of 

 science instead of merely science husks. And we're confident 

 that enough of our readers have the necessary moral integrity 

 to help us ''carry on" until the pressure of organized supersti- 

 tion, before which the professor has yielded, disappears from 

 the face of the earth. L. E. K. 



WHAT DARWIN'S LIFE HAS MEANT 

 If I were called upon to express what his life has meant, I 

 should answer, "He destroyed the raging faith of the human 

 brain that it can attain truth by logic." It is this faith which 

 inspires us to interpret nature as if it were answerable to hu- 

 man reason, as if it must be clothed in "design" or "purpose" 

 or "rectigradation." Darwin is slowly teaching the world that 

 nature is utterly beyond our thinking and that we are absurd d 

 if we drape it in our mental tatters. We are rational only 

 vAien we try to observe nature in Darwin's way. 



But I feel as if the stern old humorist were standing by my 

 desk and were not quite happy about my simile. A better 

 summary of his work is given in a sentence that he wrote in 

 1842, in the scribbled first sketch of his theory. It suggests 

 how Newton rescued the human mind from its welter of super- 

 stition about personality in inorganic nature. Newton showed 

 that all matter is subject to regular laws. But organic nature 

 still remained beyond law, a field for a riot of superstition. 

 Darwin, in his study, concluding his first sketch of an evolu- 

 tion theory, set down his hope of the good it might accomplish 

 — that it might make the facts of living matter intelligible. 

 And he made a parable for his hope: 



"We no longer look on an animal as a savage does at a ship." 

 — Henshatv Ward, in "Charles Darwin: The Man and His Welfare." 



IN OUR NEXT 

 March Evolution rvill bring several noteworthy articles: — 



Ales Hrdlicka of the Smithsonian Institution on the 

 Human Race and Its Future. 



Wm. King Gregory on the recent expedition of the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural Hisrory to the gorilla country. 



/. H. McGregor of Columbia University, the latest informa- 

 tion regarding the "Peking" Man. 



H. Gideon Wells of the University of Chicago, on the new g^ 

 evidence for evolution from Bio-Chemistry and Immunology. 



H. J. Muller. concluding "How Evolution Works." 



EVOLUTION, February, 1931, Vol. Ill No. 2. (Whole No. 17) Pub'ished month'v hy EVOLUTION PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 

 344 E. 16th St.', New York. Application for Second Class Entry pending at Post Offire, New York, N. Y. Subscription ?2.00 a year; in lists 

 of five or more, ^1.00; Foreign, 10c extra; Single copy 20c; bundles of 12 or more, 8 l/3c. 



