54 
TEARS ACTION'S OF THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
education of its people. Switzerland contains neither coal nor the ordi- 
nary raw material of industry,, and is separated from other countries 
which might supply them by mountain harriers; yet by a singularly good 
system of graded schools, and by the great technical college at Zurich, 
she has become a prosperous manufacturing country.” 
But illustrations are numerous. The law is universal. Economy in 
the use of materials is the watchword of applied science. So many pounds 
of coal represent so much work, and science has shown the connection 
between the heat that has been stored in the lump of coal by the rays of 
the sun and manual labor. Instead of estimating effectiveness by man, 
we now estimate by fuel, and the nation that is ruled by empirics can 
not advance. 
It would not be fitting to leave out of the discussion our own breezy 
experience for the last few months. The result has been ascribed to 
Anglo-Saxon grit, to American civilization, and a half-dozen other gen- 
eralities, It is time that a little analysis was applied to this question. 
I have a general idea as to what American civilization means, and I have 
a further idea of how much American science constitutes of this civili- 
zation. I suppose it would be impossible to separate science from 
civilization, because the backbone of the structure would be taken. 
Science did as much or more to make us a nation of expansionists than 
the dictum, or platform of any party. The relative number in the naval 
contest were not so much out of proportion, but it was the latest science 
against tradition and valor as the chief factors. Our guns spoke not 
the language of diplomacy, of manifest destiny, nor any traditional 
mother tongue, but they spoke, as President Jordan has said, the lan- 
guage of science. Had Spain devoted herself to science with the fidelity 
that her colonial officers did to gathering the revenue from her colonies, 
a better record w~ould have been made. 
To provide for a scientific training of the people is more incumbent 
on the South as a section than on the other section, for until the Civil 
War destroyed it, the old civilization of the South, while perhaps not 
antagonistic, was with a few exceptions rather indifferent to scientific 
research, and in no place was it considered a “favored child.” The war 
left us impoverished, our civilization destroyed, and it took us years to 
get upon our feet. Industrial education was almost unknown, and our 
lack of training in this respect was and still is an element of weakness. 
But we are now ready to play our part with grander possibilities. Every 
need of science should be supplied. It is idle to talk of being a world 
power without developing and maintaining the very first factor of power; 
without fostering in every way possible the first essential that makes a 
nation great and influential. 
