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 bet\veen 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 might}' 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 fol'ow 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 l^e 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 
