410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1949 
remaining minutes. I would, therefore, simply state my credo and 
my conclusions by quoting two paragraphs from my recent Wallberg 
Lecture at the University of Toronto: 
The people of our countries crave peace and security. They want protection 
against the perils of Nature, like floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and droughts; 
and against man-made perils of transportation, fire, and group violence. Labor 
strives for steady employment at higher wages, shorter hours, and more com- 
fortable working conditions. They want the quality of goods to go up and prices 
to go down. People want better and more adequate housing. ‘Those in business 
want larger profits. Governments, in our expanding civilization, need more tax 
money. Everybody wants better health. Those who think much beyond the 
present envisage ahead what I believe to be the greatest ultimate challenge to 
mankind, and that not many generations in the future. It is the problem of 
maintaining our growing populations in the face of rapidly depleted natural 
resources without descent into a final world epoch of struggle for bare survival. 
If we were to take the time to examine into all these needs and desires of men 
we would discover two facts. One is that science and engineering have positive 
contributions to make to every one of these requirements. The other is even 
more striking. I believe that technological progress is the only common denomin- 
ator to them all—the only solution which can simultaneously satisfy these state- 
ments of human needs. Laws, ideologies, economic theories, ethics, and brotherly 
love can provide orderly distribution, reduce waste, and promote good will 
among men, but they cannot create the wherewithal to satisfy all the apparently 
conflicting demands listed above. 
We must be prepared to take each step as it comes in these vast 
new fields which are open before us. The fact that all the answers are 
not immediately at hand is no reason for pessimism. It is in the 
American spirit of things to want to accomplish everything overnight, 
and in view of past triumphs of technology perhaps we may be for- 
given for being sanguine of success in this venture. In the long run, 
it is not likely that our confidence will be disappointed. 
In any event, today, as in every other time, the scientist still stands 
on the threshold of the unknown. Perhaps that is his greatest joy— 
what Huxley more than a half century ago called “the supreme delight 
of extending the realm of law and order even farther towards the 
unattainable goals of the infinitely great and the infinitely small, 
between which our little race of life is run.” 
