Los Angeles herald., 1906-02-04
NAN AS HIS OWN CREATOR

Professor Loeb Of the California state
university has astounded and excited
the scientific world by the announce
ment that he has succeeded in produce
ing life. Not, of course, any high form
Of life, such as human beings enjoy, but
mere protoplasm, the physical basis of
life. But science understands that the
production by man of a protoplast' or
a pair of protoplasts, presupposes the
possibility Of infinite evolution, so that
If we have really discovered and can
create the basic form of life, all the
rest will be easy of attainment
IL is. however, startling proposition;
one calculated to subvert much of our
preconoelved notions of a God-given ex-
istence, IL we can of our own motion
create life. All that man ever claimed
for himself was the provocative power,
but he has believed that the physical
basis Of the original lfe-the first pro-
toplasm, IL we may employ such an
anachronism-was a miracle.
And now, possessing for the first time
this wonderful power which we had al
ways attributed to the miraculous or
the divine, what shall we do with it?
Are we going to produce higher types.
or just make man in our own image?
Is It intended to abolish the provocative
rights, as many of the women's clubs
demand, and settle down to man-fac-
tories, from whence will come original
life-a sort of made to order form of
existence?
The situation is full of possibilities.
If we can make one form of original
life, in the course of time we can man
ufacture all forms. Who will then de-
termine the kind and character, or reg
ulate the supply and demand? Shall we
then have Human Life trust, whose
products shall be restricted to the Four
Hundred, at enormous cost? Or will it
be a Rooseveltian factory, regardless
of quality but running overtime on
quantity? Is the output going to be
strictly limited, or will it have board
of life works, to be appointed by the
mayor and confirmed by the common
council?
And who is going to provide for the
character of the production, or insure
its quality? If this new mode of pro-
cedure does not involve complete con-
troll of the diversificatons of life, it
were an emanation of the DEVIL a dis
covery that should be put back again
hurriedly into the chaotic past. Pro-
fessor Loeb would then have no right
to open his Pandora box. 1t must be
within human power to say whether we
shall produce more Loebs or more Nc
Curdys more Longfellows or more
Rockefellers; more McKinleys or more
Morgans. 1t would be phantasm to
turn loose a discovery of this kind with
out a governor, without form or void,
without predetermined certainty that
we may control the output and fashion
it to suit even our own crude notions
of high ideals.
Maybe Mr.. Loeb hasn't done good
thing, after all, no matter how great a
thing it is. On the contrary, he may
perhaps have done a very dangerous
thing. In the exercise of his newly dis
covered power and of his remarkable
functions he might accidentally create
Frankenstein monster, from whose
horrible prowesS and that of his COM
panion protoplast the present pigmies of
life might be annihilated. They do
say that the Martian man is seventeen
feet high and built accordingly. That's
all very well in country where every
body is seventeen feet high, but on this
earth the Loebian giant might do ir-
reparable damage.
Let Mr.. Loeb think twice before he
proceeds any farther with his myster-
1ous incantations and weird witchery
over the sea-urchins.