Science and Progress 55 



and social affairs has overthrown and carried away a countless 

 number of old practices and precedents. The result has been a 

 mighty conflict between the old laws of man and the new laws of 

 science. One or the other has had to give way. As the man-made 

 laws were the outgrowth of centuries of effort and cumulative 

 human knowledge, it did not seem possible that anything could come 

 into the world that would set all this cumulative knowledge and 

 experience to naught, and to do it over night as it were. Such, how- 

 ever, is the actual situation ; but a vast majority of the people of the 

 world do not realize this, do not understand it. It is also true that 

 even a large number of our more intelligent men have refused to 

 accept the new conditions in which we live, and have insisted on 

 continuing under the old system, following old precedents and prac- 

 tices. As a result, a mighty conflict has engaged us and will con- 

 tinue to engage us until our people and the other peoples of the 

 world realize that a mighty upheaval has taken place ; that we have 

 entered a new world of thought and action, dominated almost wholly 

 by the discoveries of science within the last half century; that new 

 codes of business morals, of finance, of industry are being set up; 

 and that it behooves us all to give the best thought, the broadest 

 vision, and the most unselfish devotion to the erection of a new 

 structure that will be in harmony with the modern economic needs 

 of our people. 



Who can be of more help in this great reconstruction period than 

 the scientist? Should he not, in the present troubled and confused 

 thought of the world, give of his thought and time to the work of 

 informing the people in simple, easily understood language as to 

 what he has done to upset our old practices and customs? Should 

 he not tell them wherein his work and accomplishments will be 

 of benefit to the people and why? Should he not show them how 

 impossible it is to follow old precedents and practices when he, the 

 scientist, has by his discoveries and inventions completely wiped 

 out old methods ; when he, the scientist, has, through the miracles 

 he has wrought, destroyed old tools and substituted new ones? 

 Until the people as a whole realize this, it is going to be most diffi- 

 cult to readjust our minds sufficiently to make us capable of 

 rearranging our social and industrial practices. 



The bitter conflict that has been waged in our country during 

 the last twenty-five years between the old laws of man and the new 

 laws of science has been caused by a lack of understanding on the 



