156 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 



man to do what formerly required a hun- 

 dred. A needle or a lucifer match is worth 

 a thousand times what it costs. The mail 

 which I send and receive daily at an ex- 

 pense of two or three dollars would cost 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars if each 

 piece were delivered separately .vithout 

 modern methods of transportation. It 

 would take all the time of all the people in 

 the United States to write part of what 

 they now print. In the western world 

 famine is no longer a factor. Cholera, 

 smallpox and the plague have decreased 

 their toll to less than one per cent, of what 

 they once claimed. Infant mortality has 

 been reduced from forty to ten in a hun- 

 dred. The average life of a woman after 

 the birth of her last child is perhaps three 

 times what it was. 



The economy of labor and of life which 

 the applications of science have wrought 

 has abolished the need of productive toil 

 by children and has made possible their 

 universal education. The wealth of society 

 is now sufficient to support adequately 

 every child, to give it the education that 

 opens the gateway to the career for which 

 it is fit, to provide equality of opportunity 

 and a true social democracy. At the same 

 time this education, which can be continued 

 through life, for not more than four hours 

 a day of routine labor by each adult would 

 suffice to provide its necessities, gives the 

 basis for a stable and complete political 

 democracy. The exploitation of children, 

 sex slavery, industrial servitude, klepto- 

 cratic classes, have become wanton and 

 intolerable. It is also true that in addi- 

 tion to its economic control, science has 

 been a dominant factor in education and 

 in life. It not only makes the educa- 

 tion of all possible, but its subject matter 

 and especially its methods supply the best 

 material for education. It gives us leisure 

 and at the same time means to use leisure 



worthily. It has lessened ignorance, super- 

 stition and unreason ; it has taught us to tell 

 the truth as we see it, and in increasing 

 measure to see the truth as it is. 



Material science has provided the eco- 

 nomic foundations of democracy. I believe 

 that the science of conduct justifies democ- 

 racy and will guide its laws and institu- 

 tions. But this, it must be acknowledged, is 

 only a matter of opinion. One of my col- 

 lege friends has become perhaps the most 

 distinguished mathematical physicist of the 

 world. Standing for parliament recently, 

 the four principal theses of his electoral 

 address were : Maintenance of a hereditary 

 house of lords, introduction of a protective 

 tariff, the denial of home rule to Ireland, 

 state schools under the church. These re- 

 actionary policies were endorsed by his 

 election to represent- one of the great Eng- 

 lish universities. So little do intelligence, 

 character and scientific attainment lead to 

 agreement in regard to social and political 

 theories. Each of us is enmeshed in the net 

 of his class, and has but little freedom of 

 movement. The individual does not as a 

 rule act in the light of reason, but by in- 

 stinct and impulse, and it is well that he 

 does, for they are the safer guides. But 

 while individual conduct is in the main 

 automatic response to chance circumstance, 

 it is possible by forethought to select indi- 

 viduals and to arrange circumstances. Edu- 

 cation and scientific research are subject to 

 social control and should be the chief con- 

 cern of a democratic society. 



American democracy has been on the 

 whole favorable to common-school educa- 

 tion. It is admitted that our masters must 

 be taught, and in practise this country has 

 led in public elementary education and now 

 leads in the provision of high-school and 

 college education. More than 96 per cent, 

 of all children from ten to fourteen years 

 of age are enrolled in school. There are 



