124 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1284 



and the life -whioli teems in their waters, have 

 yielded lai^e knowledge. Much of this knowl; 

 edge is revelatory of great riches in living 

 beings useful to man. And revelatory, too, 

 is the knowledge of how intimately the life 

 and health and happiness of men are depend- 

 ent upon the oceans themselves because of 

 certain of their physical and chemical at- 

 tributes; and upon the atmosphere which is a 

 sort of vital nexus between sea and land. 



But the knowledge thus far obtained as to 

 these beneficences is hardly more than an out- 

 line the details of which are yet to be filled in. 



The papers which are to follow will present 

 portions of the sketch more clearly, and will 

 indicate in some particularity what filling in 

 of details would probably show, and the means 

 by which the task would have to be done. 



Far more Imowledge is essential as to what 

 useful organic resources the waters contain; 

 as to how these may be utilized; and as to how 

 they may be made i)ermanent as well as 

 useful. 



Greater knowledge of the ocean itself and 

 the atmosphere must be had in order that the 

 harvesting and the conserving of its resources 

 may be more certain and safer; in order that 

 all travel upon the sea may be facilitated ; and 

 in order that those asj)ects of the land's pro- 

 ductiveness which are largely influenced by 

 the conditions of the sea may be brought 

 more under the control of man. 



Knowledge, and ever more knowledge, is 

 the watchword in this aspect of the great 

 problem: and of such nature and so broad is 

 the requirement that it is well nigh indis- 

 pensable that all the peoples whose interests 

 are involved should participate in securing it. 

 Common needs of world-population demand 

 common world scientific research and world 

 effort in affairs. 



And now, taking this very meager state- 

 ment as a foundation to go on, I venture to 

 summarize, in the name of world science and 

 the spirit of it, what the problem of peoples 

 of the Pacific area is, and by what methods it 

 could be resolved. It is a problem in which 

 the two elements of economics and race are 

 so enormously potent that little wonder need 



attach to the fact that many students anx- 

 iously observing the animosity growing up be- 

 tweea Japan and the United States partic- 

 ularly, conceive that the problem is wholly 

 either the one or the other, or at most both 

 of these elements. But not so. It is a prob- 

 lem of the whole gamut of human nature as 

 this manifests itself in two great groups of 

 highly and equally, though diversely civilized 

 peoples of different though equal races, com- 

 ing into economic conflict with each other. 



And just because the two groups stand high 

 and essentially equal in civilization; and just 

 because each is within itself, predominantly 

 guided by rational knowledge and conduct, 

 the only possible real solution of the conflict 

 between them must be likewise through 

 rational knowledge and conduct. It is then 

 heavily incumbent upon those men and women 

 in both groups who are professed and acknowl- 

 edged leaders in the life of the intellect, not 

 only to bring home to our fellows what is 

 involved in this way of solving the problem, 

 but also to bring home to them what would 

 almost certainly result from leaving the prob- 

 lem where it now is, namely predominantly in 

 the realm of instinct and passion. This last 

 means that oyr duty is to proclaim the in- 

 dubitable fact that the eovmterpart of the in- 

 stinct of self-preservation throughout the 

 whole animal creation is the fighting instinct; 

 and that consequently fighting — ^war — will be 

 an almost certain consequence of leaving the 

 problem where it is, this implying an almost 

 certain irrational, unjust, and destructive 

 treatment of the problem. 



And upon those of our fellows, the numbers 

 of whom are, unfortunately, neither few nor 

 powerless, who oppose the rule of reason in 

 such matters, and favor the rule of instinct, 

 let us not fail to impress the lesson of Ger- 

 many at this hour, as an example of the doom 

 that awaits any modern nation whose inter- 

 national conduct is based more on instinct 

 and brute force than on reason and moral 

 force. 



" All that take the sword shall perish with 

 the sword." The profound natural truth 

 which comes to expression in this familiar 



