528 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1429 



port. This spectacle is not one that can be 

 contemplated with equanimity by those who 

 have faith in education and hope for its future 

 development. We are losing the sense of per- 

 spective in educational affairs and we may not 

 expect to elevate our colleges from a position 

 of mediocrity in scientific training until we 

 shall have reacquired this sense. This happy 

 consummation is not to be attained so long as 

 we remain in the present state of competitive 

 hysteria or so long as we continue to provide 

 disproportionate support for an activity that 

 has no relation to scientific or other education 

 except that of obstruction to it. I do not envy 

 those colleges of the United States that are 

 planning to sink millions in athletic stadia. I 

 verily believe that the day will come when 

 these colossal monuments to the suicidal folly 

 of a so-called "educational" system will be an 

 offense to the eyes of believers in true learning, 

 for in that day we shall find it hard to convince 

 our critics that we do not esteem the spectacle 

 of two hundred and eighty minutes of actual 

 playing of football each year as of greater 

 importance than the training of American 

 youth in the science of chemistry. 



And now, in what way can there be any 

 truth in the statement made in the earlier por- 

 tion of this paper, to the effect that the men 

 who are looking to the college to supply trained 

 chemists, as well as trained scientists in other 

 fields, are directly responsible for the continu- 

 ance of this condition? Simply by this: that 

 these people are, almost without exception, 

 college and university alumni and that organ- 

 ized alumni activities concern themselves 

 almost exclusively with efforts to further ath- 

 letic successes in their colleges, to the neglect 

 of opportunities to better educational condi- 

 tions. This is certainly not because of any 

 desire to hamper the educational work of the 

 college. Quite the opposite is the ease. They 

 do not busy themselves so much with other 

 modes of assistance, merely because for some 

 reason it has not occurred to them that such 

 assistance is possible. They believe that the 

 college needs advertising and they have repeat- 

 ed so often that they nearly believe it, the old 

 fallacy that athletic prowess is the best adver- 

 tisement for institutions of higher learning. 



I hope that I do not merit the appellation 

 of "alarmist" but I do sincerely believe that 

 the present condition and the present trend of 

 scientific education is such as to give thought- 

 ful people cause for concern, and I believe 

 that we shall not get very far in our attempts 

 to improve matters until we elect to discuss 

 these things fearlessly and openly and then 

 courageously to act upon our ccmvictions. In 

 the inspired words of Vernon Kellogg r'^ "It is 

 incredible that in this all-important matter of 

 getting our higher education straightened out 

 we shall go on indefinitely acting as if we were 

 helpless. Let the college or the university that 

 wishes to do the greatest thing just now to be 

 done for higher education and true learning in 

 America step forward and boldly do the un- 

 usual thing. Let it devote the most of its 

 energies to the most important part of its 

 work. It will soon not be alone in its doing. 

 It will become a prophet with honor in its 

 own land." 



The choice of courses is now ours. If we 

 fail to exercise that choice in the name of true 

 education and true science, we may later find 

 that the decision has passed from our grasp. 

 Or can it be that, as history has so often re- 

 corded of individuals, of organizations and of 

 nations, we shall continue simply to drift until 

 the accumulation of disaster shall shock us 



into realization? 



E. G. Mahin 



BUGS AND ANTENNAEi 



Members of the Entomological Club of Mad- 

 ison, entomologists in various parts of the 

 United States, and radio "bugs" : 



The Madison Entomological Club, as host, 



1 Science, 54: 19 (1921). 



1 A radio lecture given at tlie request of the 

 Entomological Club of Madison, Wis., and broad- 

 casted from the General Electric Company's sta- 

 tion, "WGT," at Schenectady, N. Y., at 9 P.M., 

 April 24, 1922. The transmission to Morgan- 

 town, "W. Va., about 400 miles, was practically 

 perfect, it being as distinct as though presented 

 in a classroom. Unfortunately static or other 

 conditions prevented it being heard at Madison, 

 Wis., and seriously interfered at New Haven, 

 Conn., and Wooster, Ohio. 



