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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1364 



only opportunists; they could not foretell the 

 future. Since this is true, can Americans 

 easily oYerstress the need our nation has of all 

 data ohtainable to assist her along her course 

 so infinitely new? 



I have no hesitation in saying' that of Amer- 

 ica's recognized problems those most unique, 

 and most difficult to foresee in solution are 

 anthropological at base. Because of these 

 problems confronting America our anthropol- 

 ogists have the opportunity and the duty of 

 service to our nation second to no other group 

 of scientists. I put them first. 



Psychologists have given us the scientific 

 procedure for thinking through great prob- 

 lems: First, there must be a clear statement 

 of the problem; second, the accumulation of all 

 obtainable data ; third, a survey of the accumu- 

 lated data with all possible judgment and 

 guided imagination, resulting in conclusions 

 ■which, after constant efforts at refutation and 

 verification, should furnish grounds for future 

 action. I fear that we as anthropologists have 

 sometimes stopped at the second point without 

 going on to the most vital part of the proced- 

 ure covered by the third. A step further than 

 this is necessary, however. In a nation with 

 government by public opinion and universal 

 franchise any conclusions which are to affect 

 national policies and actions must be so popu- 

 larized that an educated public opinion will 

 irresistibly dominate the nation in questions 

 affected by these conclusions. Public opinion 

 so engendered concerning anthropological ques- 

 tions would put their solution in the scientific 

 class — that of deliberative thought and action. 

 It would take their solution out of the disre- 

 putable but still existing class of chance or 

 luck; and out of the still more common but 

 extremely wasteful class of trial and error. 

 From anthropologists should come the data, as 

 far as possible the conclusions, and to a certain 

 extent the programs for the solutions of our 

 national problems which have an anthropolog- 

 ical basis. 



We shall not have time in one brief paper to 

 state all the anthropological problems whose 

 solution would be of practical value to our na- 

 tion. I wish to touch in a general way on the 



fundamental value to our nation of practical 

 anthropological research as a whole and then to 

 pass on to a more extended discussion of the 

 relation of anthrojMjlogy to two of the gravest 

 problems before the nation to-day. 



Stated broadly the bed-rock national anthro- 

 pological problem is the survival and improve- 

 ment of the human element of our nation. 

 The sine qua non of civilization at any time is 

 man's survival on physical, intellectual, and 

 moral planes as high as those he possessed at 

 that time. Civilization is lost to the extent 

 that man's survival-planes are lowered. The 

 goal of civilization seems to be for increasing 

 numbers of mankind to survive on more ele- 

 vated planes of mutual physical, intellectual 

 and moral freedom. It appears to be a part 

 of cosmic evolution for each generation to 

 press toward that goal. But to a large extent 

 even to-day our generation is pressing blindly 

 toward this goal with its mind on remedial fac- 

 tors rather than on causative factors. There 

 is a ]>ertinent question and its answer in Ells- 

 worth Hunting-ton's new book, " World-Power 

 and Evolution " : 



Shall we despair because the church, the school, 

 the charity organization, and the state have not 

 yet destroyed war, pestilence, lust, greed, cruelty 

 and selfishness? Far from it. These agencies can 

 not possibly play their proper parts unless science 

 comes to their aid. 



The time has come when anthropologists who 

 study breeds of men from the disinterested 

 scientific point of view should help create 

 dominating constructive public opinion 

 founded on research to assist our nation 

 toward her goal of developing civilization. 



In my " Report on the Science of Anthro- 

 pology in the Western Hemisphere and the 

 Pacific Islands," published by the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington in 1914, I discussed 

 this question at some length under the section 

 with the general title of " Modern Problems " 

 and the sub-titles of " Ethnic Heredity," " In- 

 fluence of Environment on Mankind," " Hu- 

 man Amalgamation," and " An Anthropolog- 

 ical Laboratory." I here quote from the open- 

 ing and closing paragraphs of that section of 

 the " Report " : 



