JUME 13, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



557 



more opeu-minded toward unfamiliar ideas. 

 His natural reaction may even change from 

 one of initial opposition to the strange, to 

 one of interest and inquiry. Labels may lose 

 some of their blighting command over his 

 thought and he may lose his fear of such 

 words as Democrat, Republican, heretic, 

 agnostic, socialist, capitalist, conservative," 

 radical. The beginnings of freedom may be 

 his. 



Was there ever a time when there was more 

 need than now for the unprejudiced spirit 

 which shall receive with open inquiring mind 

 the new ideas that are coming to the fore, 

 and was there ever greater need for an im- 

 personal unselfish spirit than in the social 

 developments of tlie near future? 



I fully believe that the organization of 

 society is to be decidedly changed, that in our 

 legal systems manhood rights and interests 

 are to receive more emphasis in comparison 

 with the rights and interests of property, and 

 that selfish use of power by state or individual 

 will be frowned upon and eflfeotively restrained. 

 The fight against slavery is won the world 

 round. The fight against the special privilege 

 of birth is already won in most countries, and 

 through the aid of the great war will soon be 

 won in all lands. The fight against the spe- 

 cial and undue privilege of wealth is now 

 fairly on and it will be a harder fight than 

 either of the others and more searching in 

 its test of the strength of our social bonds. 



Any attempt to suppress the movement to- 

 ward social rebuilding I believe not only to 

 be foredoomed to failure in the end. but also 

 to be extremely dangerous. Sitting on the lid 

 beneath which is seething a deep discontent 

 will merely delay action until the forces be- 

 come beyond control, and will result in a dire 

 explosion. Bolshevism and I. W. W. outrage 

 will result and the civilization of the world 

 will go into the melting pot. The great move- 

 ment of the mass of mankind, the world round, 

 toward reorganization of society upon a basis 



5 It is a question whether heretic or conservati%'e 

 is the label more feared among American scientists. 

 Conservatism is out of style and is itself almost 

 heretical. 



giving to all men a more just share in the 

 organization, the control and the rewards of 

 industry and in the joys of life is to-day 

 so powerful and the stimulus from the 

 great war is so intense that all nations will be 

 stirred to the depths. Who arc we in Amer- 

 ica that we should escape our share of the 

 world travail in the birth of the new order? 

 Traditional conceptions will not help U9 

 here. Self interest is no safe guide. Indeed 

 our greatest dangers are from prejudice and 

 selfishness. The American labor unions and 

 organized capital must change their intensely 

 selfish pre-war spirit if they are to cooperate 

 successfully in the work of reconstruction. 

 Collective bargaining for the adjustment of 

 the interests of organized labor and capital, 

 with no representation of and little concern 

 for the interests of the general public, will not 

 take us far toward the true goal." Similarly 

 the general prejudice of organized capital 

 against socialistic tendencies is a hindrance 

 to its rendering effective service in the 

 solution of the problems. Labor's present 

 feeling that it is working in considerable 

 measure to increase the already undue profits 

 of the capitalist develops an unsocial spirit, 

 and so long as the present plan of organiza- 

 tion of industry persists it is difficult to see 

 how a more wholesome spirit can be engen- 

 dered and fostered. The fine war service of 

 both labor and capital shows a capacity for 

 unselfish cooperation, if we can but reorganize 

 society in such a way that all may feel that 

 they are working directly for the common 

 good and are getting a fair share of the 

 rewards of their labor. The English labor 

 party and such Americans as Brandeis, Wilson 

 and Baker have their faces set toward the new 

 day and are both open-minded and broad- 

 minded. In such as they, not in the present 

 spirit of American labor unions, lies chief hope 

 of leadership. If instead of opposition to the 

 seething social forces we may have sympathetic 

 guidance, there is hope of progress without 



8 1 recognize, of course, the moderation and 

 large-mindedness of the university professors' 

 union and of some, at least, of the railway men 's 

 unions and possibly of some others. 



