43 



President's Address: The Work of the Indiana 

 Academy of Science 



Donaldson Bodine. 



Not the least ainong tlie agencies that make for the hettermeiit of a 

 state are such organizations as the Indiana Conservation Association and 

 the Indiana Academy of Science. Tlieir officers and members receive no 

 sahiry, they attend the meetings at their own expense and there formally 

 and informally discuss together problems which have to do with the devel- 

 opment of the commonwealth. Doubtless the greatest immediate gain 

 comes to the indi\'idnal who takes advantage of the opportunity for fellow- 

 ship and the mutual interchange of thouglit and opinion, but through the 

 individual the state also reaps its reward. It is as true in science as in 

 morals that the level of the state is determined by the level of the individ- 

 uals who compose the larger body. The primitive law of life is competition 

 — a competitive struggle for existence and advancement. The work of Dar- 

 win, and more especially that of his followers, has given sufficient empha- 

 sis to the importance and universal application of this law ; but even in the 

 lower realms of life, we find the beginnings of a higher law, cooperation — 

 a mutual aid in the straggle. Kessler, Kropotkin. and others have shown 

 the equal if not greater importance of this later principle and have called 

 attention to the fact that in all groups of animals those who have developed 

 this nuitual aid in the largest degree have shown the greatest progress. 

 In social evolution also the greatest advances have come since competition 

 has given way to, or at least has been modified by. cooperation, and the 

 greatest teacher the world has known founded his plan for the salvation 

 of the individual and the race upon the principle of nuitual service. This 

 mutual service should be the watchword of the members of the Academy. 



The constitutioii of the Academy provides that the I^resident shall 

 deliver an address on the moi-ning of one of the days of the meeting at 

 the expiration of his term of ollice, and in obedience to that provision and 

 in conformity with the idea of true conservation, which means the best. 



