410 
of meteorology, of metallurgy, you must look 
for the leaders in other countries. 
It may be true, although I doubt it, that 
Germany has the best generals, the best guns, 
the best ships; she certainly has the largest 
army and the power to bear upon any point the 
greatest force; but this condition will pass. In 
the meantime there are two agencies at work 
in this country which in reality are most pow- 
erful sources of German propaganda. One of 
these is the interpretation given to news from 
the war by our public journals, and the em- 
phasis placed upon German successes. In part 
this is due to the lack of realization by the 
managers of the papers of their responsibility 
in the matter, but in larger part to that policy 
of a newspaper office which leaves the writing 
of the headlines in the hands of unexperienced, 
comparatively uneducated, young men. The 
other agency of German propaganda, and a 
much more vicious one, is the policy adopted 
by our own government in regard to giving 
out official information. The whole policy is 
wrong, and should be changed. The people 
have lost confidencé in the government agents, 
and rightly so; they are either optimistic to a 
ridiculous degree or boastful. What is re- 
quired is that the government must realize the 
tremendous responsibility of the office charged 
with the dissemination of news. There is no 
man in America too great for this task. He 
must command the absolute confidence of 
every one; he must be able to speak the truth 
and nothing but the truth; he must under- 
stand the thousand phases of the war, looked 
at from a military, a medical, a scientific, a 
social standpoint; above all he must be allowed 
to give the American people real information 
in regard to the efficiency, the achievements of 
our people and of the Allies. It is absolutely 
impossible for a man trained as a newspaper 
writer to grasp the situation. It is one of the 
real tragedies of the hour that the American 
people are so often deceived and are not told 
the truth about so many matters which con- 
cern them so vitally. If our people could 
only realize the exact situation, Germany 
would lose half her power, because in fact the 
American people are afraid of her, a condition 
which is absurd. 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Vou. XLVIII. No. 1243 
The scientific men of America have suffered 
greatly at the hands of the people. As I said 
at the beginning of this paper, it was a matter 
of great surprise to the country that science 
had any part in this war. Even such men as 
the members of the engineering societies have 
been slow to recognize the value of the service 
of the investigators in science. The ablest 
group of scientists in America is naturally the 
National Academy of Sciences, and the physi- 
cists are associated in a large and powerful 
American Physical Society; yet, when a few 
years ago one of our government departments 
determined very wisely to form a board of pro- 
fessional scientific and technical advisers, 
neither of these national societies was invited 
to name a delegate or to participate in any 
way. It was not understood clearly why the 
American Mathematical Society was requested 
to name a member of this board until it was 
explained that it was thought it might be use- 
ful to have a man who could do figures for 
them. This was of course simply a case where 
the general ignorance of the country was erys- 
tallized in action. 
The time has come for America to recog- 
nize the usefulness of the scholar, the thinker, 
the investigator of science. All the other 
countries of the world have done so long 
since. It is only in regard to such experi- 
mental sciences as physics and chemistry that 
there is this failure in this country to ap- 
preciate the services of its experts. If the 
question as to the prevalence of a particular 
disease in army camps is to be investigated, 
a board consisting of pathologists and men 
skilled in hygiene is selected almost automat- 
ically, not a board of practitioners. The same 
is true in regard to all questions of public 
health, of social questions, of law. It is the 
duty of all college and university men to make 
their voices heard and to bear witness to what 
their teachers and their associates have done 
and are doing. 
To return to our motto; the love of learn- 
ing is a good guide for life; it brings its own 
happiness, it makes one a useful citizen both 
in times of peace and in war, it prepares a 
man for that service which is our only justifi- 
cation for living. J. S. Ames 
Tur JOHNS Hopkins UNIVERSITY 
