HUMAN PROSPECTS — BLACKWELDER 273 



cannot afford to neglect any aspect of science. Discoveries in one 

 field often release obstructions that have held back progress in other 

 branches of science, and thus permit further advances. On the other 

 hand, by regimenting scientific work and even opinion, along with 

 all other phases of life, for their own immediate purposes, modern 

 tyrants are violating this principle. This they can do with some 

 measure of success for a short time, but eventually their countries 

 will almost surely suffer a degeneration of science, and therefore of 

 the civilization which is based upon it. 



Along with the increasing complexity of modern life there has 

 grown up an urgent need for the scientific expert. The demand is 

 being met by many persons who are real scientists but unfortunately 

 by others who do not deserve the name. On that score Dean Roscoe 

 Pound lately said in sarcastic vein that "the administrator is not 

 appointed to office because he is an expert but he is an expert because 

 he has been appointed." We all know of cases that fit this satire, 

 but in all seriousness we may trust that they are not numerous and 

 that they are decreasing. 



Since the public must depend on its experts, it is essential that it 

 should be well justified in placing confidence in them, to the end 

 that such respect will endure. That puts a heavy responsibility upon 

 the individual expert. As Grover Cleveland once said, "a public 

 office is a public trust," no less so should any degree of leadership in 

 science be regarded as a public trust; and so the expert scientist is 

 under great obligation to deserve the confidence of the public. His 

 intellectual honesty will need to be outstanding and unwavering. 

 Today, in this country, the scientist has already won such esteem 

 to a large degree, although he is compromised and discredited now 

 and then by the shortcomings of the less conscientious and careful 

 of his colleagues. Unfortunately, too, it is among the latter that the 

 most vocal types are apt to appear, and it is they who often attract 

 the most public attention. Perhaps it is expecting too much of man, 

 as we know him, to hope that a time will some day arrive when our 

 most influential leaders will be persons who have the true scientific 

 spirit and have been trained expressly for the work they are to do, 

 as humble in the face of their own limitations as they are wise and 

 honest. 



Many years ago a former president of our Society, R. A. Daly, 

 speaking informally as a visitor to one of my classes, advised the 

 boys to "think to scale." It would be hard indeed to pack more 

 meaning into three words. The person who thinks to scale sees the 

 relative value of each fact he uses and of each objective before him. 

 He can then economize his time by confining his attention chiefly to 

 the important and the significant problems. On that point the wisest 



