November 9, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



585 



consideration of all obtainable evidence and 

 data. 



To-day, all over the land, we find indis- 

 criminate abuse of corporations. What is 

 fair and honest is condemned along with 

 that which is unfair and dangerous to our 

 national life. If we condemn indiscrim- 

 inately and thus unjustly, so surely will 

 there be a reaction, and public opinion, 

 seeing that injustice has been done, will be 

 carried to the other extreme and again 

 become indifferent to real evils. And the 

 last condition shall be worse than the first. 

 - If wrong has been done under the mantle 

 of trusts and corporations— and unques- 

 tionably such is the case — that is no reason 

 that we should believe that corporations as 

 such are necessarily evil in their work and 

 influence. It is a commentary on the sin- 

 cerity of some of the most blatant of yellow 

 journalists that, while condemning corpora- 

 tions as a whole, they avail themselves of 

 the protection to be found in corporate 

 organization to secure immunity from per- 

 sonal responsibility. 



And are we not forced to acknowledge, 

 much as we may regret the necessity, that 

 the yellov/ journals have been given their 

 opportunity all too often through the hasty, 

 intemperate, non-judicial utterances of those 

 occupying the highest positions within the 

 gift of the people? Are these men, occu- 

 pying their high positions through the votes 

 of the people who have trusted them, to be 

 absolved from responsibility because they 

 plead, or the plea is entered for them, that 

 they are sincere in their beliefs, are per- 

 sonally honest in their acts and have ef- 

 fected reforms in spite of their indiscre- 

 tions? They can not so escape their final 

 responsibility. 



It used to be thought that responsibility 

 thrust upon an office-holder would steady 

 him and make him a safer guide than 

 his public utterances before election had 

 seemed to warrant. 



The efi:ect of the present tendency to 

 destructive criticism is to kill or at least 

 discourage individual enterprise. National 

 enterprise can result only from individual 

 enterprise ; and the latter necessarily is held 

 in check and finally killed if the individuals 

 come to believe that the government will 

 not permit them to reap fairly where they 

 have sown. 



Much, perhaps nearly all, of the present 

 unrest comes from lack of information and 

 from misinformation as to the conduct of 

 certain of our industries. The evils which 

 flow from general lack of information are 

 systematically cultivated by misinforma- 

 tion supplied by the M^orst of the yellow 

 journals. 



Then to-day the problem is— how shall 

 we correct the false impressions created by 

 those who systematically aim to deceive 

 and by those who, while honest in inten- 

 tion, are not deterred from rash statements 

 by their ignorance and inexperience? 



First, we should be firm not to believe 

 evil of any one or anything on the unsup- 

 ported statements of the yellow press. 

 Beyond that the remedy must come from 

 the dissemination of the truth. The nation 

 as a whole needs the honest services of those 

 who know. 



But it may be asked, why this discussion 

 in connection with the dedication of a 

 building to be devoted to engineering edu- 

 cation ? I will try to show in a few words 

 that this discussion is appropriate to the 

 occasion. 



In this country the varied and bountiful 

 gifts of nature have, in no small degree, 

 been utilized for the common good through 

 the efforts of the workers in pure and ap- 

 plied science. This country's present com- 

 manding position in the industrial field is, 

 in considerable measure, due to the efficient 

 preparatory work done by our engineering 

 schools. And incidentally let me say, while 

 all classes have, directly or indirectly, prof- 



