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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 448. 



more than any other animal, is social and 

 gregarious, and the evolution of laws for 

 the best interests of the race is as certain 

 as the evolution of the organic world. 



The concentration of forces in the in- 

 dustrial world, by whatsoever name we call 

 them, is an expression of a definite social 

 law. Many of my hearers will remember 

 when every village had its own shoemaker, 

 its butcher and baker and candlestick 

 maker, all laboriously and with wasted 

 energy doing those things which are now 

 being done by scores of producers. The 

 trusts or combinations may and will do 

 things cheaper and better, because they 

 concentrate in labor and material and time, 

 all of which are possible because of in- 

 creased specialization. 



But it is a grave problem to all of us 

 how far such specialization and concentra- 

 tion shall be permitted to go, that they may 

 not outrun control, that they may not re- 

 sult in the subjugation of the weaker and 

 their undue dependency iipon the greed of 

 the leaders of the industrial forces. "When 

 wealth and power have become perpetual, 

 and poverty insurmountable, then would 

 trusts and monopolies be intolerable and 

 dissolution imminent. 



Of such results, however, there is less 

 probability than ever before in the world's 

 history. The fountain of civilization is 

 constantly bubbling up afresh to replace 

 that which is foul and effete. Never be- 

 fore has there been less danger of stratifica- 

 tion in our social organism. In the past 

 history of life upon our earth it has been 

 a law that the highest organisms of one 

 epoch have developed, not from the dom- 

 inant organisms of a preceding epoch, but 

 from the middle classes, if I may apply 

 such a term to them. From the farm and 

 the work shop will come the leaders of the 

 next generation, even as those of the pres- 

 ent generation are, for the most part, of 

 similar origin. 



With eveiy succeeding generation of 

 men, as of other animals, the summit of 

 evolution is gradually becoming higher. 

 The way toward success is longer, but our 

 strides are greater. Specialization is an 

 inviolable law of nature, to which man is 

 no exception, physically or psychically. 

 How shall we recognize this in education? 

 How shall we determine that which is real 

 and avoid that which is unreal? 



It must be apparent to all that our 

 modern industrial activities are having a 

 profound influence -upon our systems of 

 education. Or is it largely because of our 

 improved methods in education that 

 America is attaining its great commercial 

 importance at the present time? A new 

 generation has grown up since technical 

 schools of agriculture have been established 

 throughout our land, and technical and 

 professional schools of all kinds have im- 

 proved in a most extraordinary way dur- 

 ing the past twenty years. The engineer 

 is no longer a country surveyor ; the physi- 

 cian is no longer one who turns from the 

 plow or anvil to pills and powders with a 

 few months' interim of perfimctory lec- 

 tures; the lawyer is no longer graduated 

 from the- village law office. President 

 Draper has recently deplored the passing 

 of the family doctor and the coming in his 

 stead of the specialist. He regrets that 

 the man, the counselor and friend is 

 merging into the cold, unsympathetic scien- 

 tist. But who is there of us, when danger 

 is imminent, that would not rather choose 

 that same unsympathetic scientist, skilled 

 and skilful in all that goes toward success ? 

 Who would choose the village-educated 

 lawyer to fight a powerful trust? Special 

 knoAvledge and special skill the world must 

 have and the world will have wherever 

 possible, and special skill is possible for 

 every one, even though it be in nothing 

 more than the sharpening of a jack-knife. 

 Is there any one who doubts this ? Is there 



