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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1012 



sider plants only from the industrial point 

 of view, but it does require the abandon- 

 ment of the dogmatic attitude which has so 

 long been hostile to any union of philosoph- 

 ical interest and industrial needs. It means 

 the obliteration of the class line between 

 the nobility of wild growing plants and the 

 bourgeoisie of cultivated species ; it means 

 the recognition and acknowledgment by 

 teachers and investigators that very prac- 

 tical and commonplace subjects, such, for 

 example, as the germination of ordinary 

 garden seeds, often present as profound 

 theoretical problems as those which are far 

 removed from the field of possible utility ; 

 it means the recognition of the principle 

 aptly stated by a recent writer in another 

 connection that "It is the interaction of 

 various types of human thought and in- 

 vestigation, and not mutual isolation or 

 contempt, which helps us all, while he does 

 best who works with the profoundest theo- 

 retical problems and the most intensely 

 practical interests at once pressing upon 

 him, with the widest and most philosoph- 

 ical breadth of view, and the most faithful 

 special labor, at once demanding atten- 

 tion. ' ' ^ 



The socialization of industry and the 

 specialization of almost every line of human 

 endeavor has necessitated fundamental 

 changes in the spirit and methods of edu- 

 cation. No longer is the hope held out that 

 more than a fraction of the students that fill 

 our schools and colleges can win a com- 

 petence in the learned professions, and 

 large numbers must be encouraged to look 

 for their life work in some line of activity 

 closely associated with industry. To such 

 of these as may choose an occupation in 

 which practical knowledge concerning 

 plants will be of benefit, the social obliga- 

 tion of the botanist is clear. He should en- 

 courage rather than discountenance in- 



2 Eoyce, J., Science, N. S., Vol. 38, 1913, p. 584. 



vestigations of a very practical nature, re- 

 lying upon his own endowment with the 

 true scientific spirit to so shape and direct 

 the work of his students that it may lead to 

 the development of the desired scientific 

 attitude of mind toward the fundamental 

 principles of plant life. To be sure it will 

 be objected that in such a course lies the 

 danger that education will become a mer- 

 chandise and science be degraded into a 

 mere trade. It is feared that the time spent 

 in learning anything which can not be 

 turned into money will come to be consid- 

 ered as lost and that no longer will there be 

 any interest in the search for truth that 

 does not bear the earmark of utility. It 

 seems to me, if there is any danger to the 

 future of botanical science, that it lies in 

 an entirely diiferent direction, that is, in 

 the failure to recognize the great possibili- 

 ties for the development and stimulation 

 of mdespread interest in the more theoret- 

 ical aspects of this subject, growing out of 

 its relation to the material affairs of men 

 in general, for just as our social workers 

 have learned that religion offers poor com- 

 fort to the man whose stomach is empty, 

 and whose body is imperfectly clothed, so 

 botanists must come to see that their phi- 

 losophy will mean little or nothing to the 

 great mass of society unless it finds some 

 expression along lines of human interest 

 and necessity. 



It is a social obligation of the botanist 

 to insist that the standards by which he is 

 to be judged shall be those of personal 

 value rather than the standards of wealth. 

 Measured by the latter, his position in the 

 economic scale may be regarded as com- 

 parable with that of the wage-earner or his 

 fellow worker in the trades, whose useful- 

 ness to society is largely measured by his 

 ability to adapt himself to the material and 

 often mechanical requirements under which 

 he must perform his task. The usefulness 



