THE ATLANTIC AND WESTERN MAN 307 



work in the service of mankind. Long ago the Roman emperor 

 Justinian decreed that the ocean was a thing common to man, 

 like air or rain water. We have seen that the ocean was at one 

 time a dread barrier to physical travel, and was even considered 

 beyond the realm of rational study. Then we saw the ocean 

 become a way for expanding the range of man's growth, and 

 a new path for intercommunication among peoples. Recently 

 men have fought to dominate the ocean surfaces as a means 

 to national power. Today, science is looking beneath the 

 waters of the Ocean River and studying its rich life, its re- 

 sources of chemicals and minerals, and is rediscovering a 

 frontier that moves and lives, and that may well be of 

 paramount importance if it is used as a ''thing common to 

 man, like air or rain water." Its fisheries have been exploited 

 but yet may be farmed; the study of its currents that help 

 control our sea and air climates may well lead to a full knowl- 

 edge of the forces that guide the powers of sea and air; ocean 

 chemistry may radically expand our industries. 



Meanwhile each year the scientific advances in medicine face 

 the world with a population increase of 21,000,000 people — 

 21,000,000 additional mouths to be fed, bodies to be clothed, 

 souls to be assured a full chance of a good life. If we release 

 forces that make for uncontrolled fertility without evolving 

 social and political means to handle this force, we face a danger 

 to man's successful and continuing evolution no less threaten- 

 ing than the blind use of atomic energy. Each of these dangers 

 is also an opportunity for fresh advance. But one thing is cer- 

 tain: inertia or fear to face this challenge to world-wide co- 

 operative effort will bring defeat. All the means are at hand for 

 a solution; and no small part of the solution lies in keeping 

 in focus a concept of the Ocean River as a scientific, social, 

 and political unity — a new frontier for western man. 



