Apkil 10, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



521 



high schools, the normal schools and the 

 colleges take hold and help too. That it is 

 decidedly to their own selfish interest to do 

 this is perfectly obvious. If the scientific 

 spirit of the children could be preserved 

 instead of deadened in the schools, the work 

 of the higher institutions would change 

 utterly — would become veritably inspired. 

 But finally, and most important, the 

 syllabus for industrial science is the one 

 just outlined because it is the one that 

 commerce and industry and the public and 

 the world at large are demanding of the sci- 

 ence teachers. This is evident because the 

 history of the development of our civiliza- 

 tion shows that, since the destruction of 

 Eome, progress has consisted in a continual 

 series of triumphs by men who believed in 

 things over men who believed in words. 

 Magellan believed in things; and when his 

 fleet had sailed off the west end of the 

 world and sailed safely back on to the 

 east end of it without being seriously in- 

 convenienced by the feat, the words of 

 those who liked to prattle about flat worlds 

 became rather insipid. Watt, and Steven- 

 son and Fulton believed in things so vigor- 

 ously that they actually succeeded in re- 

 ducing this earth to about one-eighth of 

 its former size, and in expanding the 

 strength of men to the nth power. No 

 amount of talking could ever have accom- 

 plished that. The telegraph, the telephone 

 and wireless have compressed the world to 

 still smaller dimensions. The Hanseatic 

 League, the craft guilds, the so-called Re- 

 naissance, the development of a merchant 

 marine, the expansion of industry and 

 commerce, are all the work of men who had 

 faith in things. The effects of this work 

 are not material only; for the tangible re- 

 sults of it have been silently working on 

 men's ideals all the time and as silently 

 reconstructing them. It has done more to 

 make men comprehend the idea of univer- 



sal brotherhood than all the words that 

 were ever uttered about it. 



All this is work of the scientific spirit as 

 here defined. It is forcing on us new con- 

 ceptions of goodness and justice, new ideals 

 of success and failure. It is even develop- 

 ing in us a new faith; for the scientific 

 faith in things and in the possibility of 

 finding among things a harmony which in- 

 cludes them all is now expanding into a 

 faith in men and in the possibility of find- 

 ing among men a justice which includes 

 them all. This fact appears explicitly in 

 the work of Taylor and others on scientific 

 management, and implicitly in the change 

 that is rapidly coming over business meth- 

 ods everywhere. 



The prophets of our time are telling us 

 that a few years ago the general idea 

 underlying business and industrial trans- 

 actions was "get all you can out of every- 

 body and give as little as you can in re- 

 turn." Business is business was the motto. 

 While this idea still pervades much business, 

 the most successful firms at present are those 

 which have felt the inspiration of this ex- 

 panded spirit of science and which there- 

 fore realize that this idea is, in the light of 

 the facts, a false one. To be permanently 

 successful in business or industry, one must 

 deal with the same people for long periods 

 of time; and this is possible only when all 

 parties to the transaction are satisfied. All 

 parties will be satisfied only when there is 

 mutual confidence in one another and a 

 recognition that all have been treated fairly 

 and justly. This means that business and 

 industry are coming more and more to be 

 guided by men who have a faith in men as 

 well as in things, and who believe that 

 there must be a social and economic order 

 which vsdll give a justice that is best for all 

 and which can be found if men seek it 

 long enough and honestly enough. Busi- 

 ness men are coming to this faith, not be- 



