238 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1077 



unfortunate than war ; but just settlements 

 of wars would go far to prevent war. 



The human race needs above everything 

 else the conviction that the principles of 

 science rule everywhere, and that the prob- 

 lems of personal and national life are not 

 solved so long as any important forces are 

 ignored. The need is especially great in 

 our own country where isolation from other 

 countries and the existence of immense 

 reservoirs of natural resources have let us 

 seem to keep up with international prog- 

 ress in spite of our wasteful and inefficient 

 methods. It were well to recognize that 

 entry upon world affairs, which we can not 

 long avoid, will reveal costly weaknesses. 



The appeal of science for the adoption of 

 scientific methods in the daily life of the 

 people, in the governments of community, 

 state and nation, in the settling of inter- 

 national questions, is not an appeal for effi- 

 ciency at all costs. The life that is forever 

 bent over the exact equation, two plus two 

 are four, a life that tries to express aU its 

 experiences in equations equally exact, is 

 liable to be narrow, distorted, unhappy and 

 misspent. The man who worships scientific 

 efficiency, like the man who is a slave to 

 gold, or the man who pushes his religion 

 too far, may acquire a harsh and selfish 

 view of life; pity and charity may drop 

 out of his vocabulary. 



Our appeal is for the scientific method of 

 treating the problems which are before us 

 for solution. The scientific method is that 

 which takes account of all the forces acting. 

 It is therefore the just method. It is in 

 full harmony with the Golden Rule, " Do 

 unto others as you would have others do 

 unto you. ' ' It is, if you please, in full har- 

 meny with the spirit of Christ. Support 

 is given to research by the governments and 

 by generous men and women in order that 

 the truth may be found and be made avail- 

 able in the service of mankind. The inves- 



tigational laboratories of the universities, 

 the observatories, the private institutions 

 for research, have precisely these ideal pur- 

 poses, and no other purpose. The various 

 activities of the world contribute to the 

 advancement of civilization in proportion 

 as they contain the ideal and the unselfish. 

 That which is purely practical, containing 

 no element of idealism, may sustain exist- 

 ence and to that extent be valuable, but it 

 does not civilize. I believe it is the idealism 

 of pure knowledge, the idealism in applied 

 knowledge, the idealism in industry and 

 commerce, the idealism in literature and 

 art, the idealism in personal religion, which 

 leavens the life of the world and pushes for- 

 ward the boundaries of civilization. 



W. W. Campbell 



INDUSTSIAL ACCIDENT STATISTICS 

 The United States Bureau of Labor Sta- 

 tistics of the Department of Labor has just 

 issued as Bulletin 15Y a report on Industrial 

 Accident Statistics by Frederick L. Hoffman. 

 The adoption of the principle of workmen's 

 compensation by more than half of the states 

 within the last few years emphasizes the im- 

 portance of the industrial accident problem 

 and foreshadows the time when such compen- 

 sation for industrial accidents will become 

 universal throughout the United States. 



As one method of measuring this impor- 

 tance, the bulletin presents an estimate of the 

 number of fatal and nonfatal industrial acci- 

 dents occurring among American wage-earners 

 in a single year. The conclusion reached ia 

 that the number of fatal industrial accidenta 

 among American wage-earners, including both 

 sexes, may be conservatively estimated at 25,- 

 000, and the number of injuries involving a 

 disability of more than four weeks, using the 

 ratio of Austrian experience, at approximately 

 Y00,000. These numbers, impressive as they 

 are, fail to indicate fully the number of in- 

 dustrial accidents, for such studies as have al- 

 ready been made show that of the accidents 

 involving disabilities of one day and over at 



