APPLIED GEOLOGY BEOOKS. 351 



people. The present turmoil in China can probably be interpreted, 

 m the last analysis, as a protest against tlie affau's of state being 

 guided by the classicist rather than by the scientist. 



Wliile we may criticize Cliina for not accepting the dictum of 

 science, we have only recently departed from a similar attitude, 

 though our abundant resources have made our own faults less con- 

 spicuous. In this respect the present generation has made greater 

 strides than aU that preceded. We are now applying science to the 

 affairs of the Nation as never before. The old-fasliioned publicist, 

 with liis classical education or, at least, trachtions, is being shouldered 

 out of the way by the man v/ho anal3^zes the problems of pubhc wel- 

 fare on scientific principles. The trained investigator is being more 

 and more appealed to in the affairs of the Nation. In tliis we are 

 following Germany, whose long leadership in pure science has now 

 been overshadowed by her leadership in appUed science. We have 

 begun to realize that it is one thing to win prosperity and happiness 

 out of the bounty of a new land, another to gain it by utihzing re- 

 sources which can only be made available by scientific genius. 



Mr. Gilbert has said that "pure science is fundamentally the 

 creature and servant of the material needs of mankind." Yet it is 

 not uncommon to find the devotee of pure science assummg that his 

 fi.eld is on a higher plane than that of those studying problems wliich 

 involve the material welfare of the human race. This seems specially 

 true in the field of geology. If a bacteriologist finds a new toxin for 

 a disease germ, a botanist a new food plant, a sanitary engineer a 

 measure for preserving human life, all unite in commending his work. 

 Yet there are not a few geologists, though I believe a constantly de- 

 creasing number, who seem to view with suspicion any attempt to 

 make the science of geology more useful. Those who are devoting 

 themselves to economic geology are charged with commercializing 

 the science, as if the appMng of its principles to better the conditions 

 of the people were not the highest use to which scientific research 

 could be put. One reason ff)r this attitude is because much which 

 has been masquerading as applied geology is not science at all. The 

 commercial exploitation of natural resources under the cloak of geology 

 is not to be confounded with geologic research that has for its aims 

 the application of scientific principles to the needs of man. 



The geologist who is studying the resources of the public domain 

 to the end that a sound policy may be adopted for their utilization, 

 or he who is gaging the exhaustion of our mineral wealth by studying 

 statistics of producti(m, is doing his share of scientific work no less 

 than he who is engaged in the more pleasing task of evolving new 

 geologic principles. The masters of the science have not hesitated to 

 turn then* attention to economic problems. Clarence King deserves 



