Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-08
SCIENCE RECA|N|NG
ITS LOST GROUND
Eminent Chemist Notes Rapid
Strides Toward Normal,
With America Leading.
BY HAL O'FLAHERTY,
BY Cable to The Star and Chicago
Daily News. Copyright. 1910.

Dalty news. Copyright. 1919.
STOCKHOLM. Sweden. December ).
Five years of warfare left the
world of science greatly depressed.
fbut after year of peace rapid strides
are being made toward the norma |.
through the increasing Interchange
/ OF knowledge by pilgrimage and
tquick mail services scientists are at
| tempting TO recover their lost ground.
! America. with her wonderful abora-
tories and observatories and her great
and inexhaustible natural resources
| is in the forefront
! This tribute to Americas work along
Isclentlhc lines comes from one of the
worlds greatest chemists. Prof.
Svante Arrhenius father of modern
electro chemistry, who was awarded
the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1900
Talks of Condition. After War
In his laboratory. situated on a hill
just outside of Stockholm, where he
! is surrounded with students from the
whole world, Prof. Arrhenius talked
! TO me of conditions after the war.
| 1t Is gratifying in these days to get
regularly the American mails bring
| ing your scientific journals. your lit
erature so rich in thought and per-
sonal letters from my friends Dur
ing the war some of my mail was di-
verified or held up by the censor and
| was received more than a year after il
| was sent Such conditions were re-
! sponsible for the retrogression o.
science during the war. The belliger-
i ent governments bottled up their in
| formation. each building an impene-
/ ira bic wall around its work In some
instances science accomplished great
| Things In the war. but mostly of a de-
structive nature and not of lasting
i quality. Today we look with surprise
upon many different theories and
ideas that are being put forward, not
because they are new but because
| they have lain dormant during the
| war. During the last few months
| there has been much in the news COL
umns regarding atomic energy. but
ii is doubtful whether our age will see
such energy developed except by ra-
dunn. True there is much energy III
! other substances. but it is of such in
! finitely feeble power that it cannot be
/ utilized Such fields of thought offer
a wide scope for conjecture, but small
opportunity for practical research.
Photograph Of Eclipse Noted.
81 have heard that the recent ex-
periments made in photographing an
, eclipse resulted definitely and may
enable some proof to be offered OF
! E'nstein's theory of detected energy
We have not yet received that proof.
/ w hat is needed most is the reopening
of the worlds knowledge mines, such
as those in Russia. There we have
, enormous fields not touched which
may give up great things for the
| world. in the past we depended upon
, entists, but that help has been cut off
for several years.
II have heard report that the
present government allowed several
| laboratories to be looted and valuable
! instruments to be sold for junk. That
l cannot believe. and still hope for ar
open door to the eastward. with al
that it means TO humanity"
True Disciple Of Nobel.
| Prof. Arrhenius is true disciple
of Alfred Nobel, who left one of the
greatest Incentives to the abolition
of war. War is not humanitarian,
he said The scientific development.
of war produce little for humanity.
am not a militarist. and can see little
good in universal training except fol
its physical benefits and building vi
by vigorous athletic life; but too
often il sowS the seed of lust FOL
power and breeds desire for war.
talked recently with an army Officer
from one of the Baltic states. wht
said that we must have another war
as the real soldiers had not had al
opDortunity of proving their WORT
since the armistice. That is the atti
tude developed by soldiers train
ing Sweden is giving good leaf
by her steps toward the limitation o.
ornaments and military training.
Reverting to the thirst of scientists
for knowledge withheld during the
war. the professor declared thai
!, Americans were now buying up entire
libraries in Germany and boldly seek
} ing to trace the developments of Ger
man research work since 1914. The
Japanese. he said, were equally anx'
ious for knowledge stored up in the
central empires
American student Enrolled.
, At the conclusion of our talk hi
asked me if | would like to see al
american student working in hi:
laboratory He took me up into the
research rooms, where, in the mids
of an array of test tubes. retorts ant
, scores OF vessels containing plant cul
lures. he pointed out a young MAI
absorbed in study who proved to b'
r.. n Hixson of Crown Point, Ind.
one of ten American students in Swe'
den. These Americans testify to the
value of training in Swedish colleges
and this is especially true in chem
/ istry. for of seventy-five known ele
! ments twenty have been discovered
1 by Swedish chemists. Perhaps thes,
: students NAV be on hand for the an
nouncement of another discovery ever
more rar-reaching than any mad
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