Januabt 10, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



31 



waste in coal mining" and as the whole subject 

 of the conservation of all our resources devel- 

 oped and was studied, it has always been the 

 engineers of the country, qualified by training, 

 expert knowledge, and intelligence, "who have 

 led and must now lead in the study and broad 

 consideration of our best national policy in 

 conservation. It is the duty of engineers to 

 keep in the forefront of the study and teaching 

 of this matter, and to do their exi>ert share 

 towards shaping the policy of the nation to a 

 course based on reason, economic principles 

 and technical knowledge, rather than on senti- 

 mental or political diatribe. A greater danger 

 is threatened to the public interests by the un- 

 trained, spasmodic, semi-political, and careless 

 presentation and handling of these matters be- 

 fore the public, by men on whom their im- 

 portance has suddenly dawned, than by a con- 

 tinuance of erroneous methods of the past. 

 The trouble with most of the plans for rail- 

 road and business regulation, and for mineral 

 and water-power conservation, proposed by men 

 untrained and inexperienced in engineering 

 and in business and financial methods and 

 problems, is that their plans are apt to be ideal 

 rather than real, their dicta negative and de- 

 structive ratlier than affirmative, positive and 

 constructive, and their remedies untried and 

 theoretical experiments, rather than of prac- 

 tical and efficient effect. 



We should recognize, and this great war's 

 awakening and upturn of all preconceived and 

 preexisting conditions has emphasized, the im- 

 portance of business-like rather than political 

 management of our national transportation 

 and industrial interests, and of all other na- 

 tional affairs involving expert scientific or 

 business knowledge and training. Our country 

 owes an incalculable debt of gratitude and ap- 

 preciation to the great interests that have led 

 in and made possible the wonderful transpor- 

 tation and industrial development of our land, 

 and we may find that on a large scale we will 

 be killing the goose that lays the golden ^g of 

 national prosperity, if we suffer our railroads 

 and our great industries to be nagged and op- 

 pressed to the point of possible insolvency by 

 blind unreasoning prejudice largely bom of 



ignorance, and largely based on political con- 

 siderations that should not control. The pres- 

 ent agitation of the whole subject has a high 

 educational value for our people, and we may 

 be certain that we can in the end trust the 

 horse-sense, the intelligence that in the long 

 run is characteristic of our people, not to be 

 finally led away by 'isms or wild theories, but 

 to use in the fiqal determination of these ques- 

 tions that independence of judgment and 

 .sound common sense so characteristic of and 

 inherent in the American people, and for which 

 our politicians so often make the mistake of 

 not giving the people credit. 



What better summary of the existing condi- 

 tions following the war has or can be given 

 than the following from the St. Louis Star, 

 comprehensive in its scope, yet wonderfully 

 succinct in its statement? 



A GREA.TEK HUMAJ^ITY RISES FROM WAR 



During the process of readjustment we shall 

 profit from the lessons the war has taught. In 

 that, aside from freedom for all the peoples of 

 the world, will lie the greatest achievement of 

 the war. When the balance is struck the profit 

 will outweigh the loss. The human lives sacri- 

 ficed will yield a better and a greater humanity. 

 The cost in dollars will be absorbed quickly in 

 passing years. The material gains will live and 

 produce. 



We, in America, have learned something of our 

 strength. We • have learned the possibilities of 

 our united effort. We have learned economy. 

 We have learned concentration. These things 

 will mold themselves into our national character. 

 We shall act with a new inspiration. We shall 

 feel a new confidence. We shall have a new con- 

 sciousness of the invincibleness of righteous pur- 

 pose. Henry Sturgis Drinker 



Lehigh Universitt 



CHEMISTRY AND MEDICINE: A TRIB- 



UTE TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN 



HARPER LONGi 



Dr. Long's life and work, so ably portrayed 

 by Professor Dains, are an eminent instance of 



» An address given November 22, 1918, before a 

 joint meeting of the Institute of Medicine of Chi- 

 cago and the Chicago Section of the American 

 Chemical Society. 



