Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-15
HOW SCIENCE CAN
HELP THE SOLDIER
BY GARRETT p. SERVICE.

need of moro instruction in scientific
knowledge for all boys and girls.
Schools are still conducted on a too
literary basis. The elements of sci
ence should be taught several years
earlier in the courses than they are at
to wait, and not science.
The laws of motion and of cleo
tricity are more important to be
known by everybody than the re-
finements or caprices of style. or the
rules of metrical composition. There
is moro mental value in Newton than
in Homer; the one represents the
days work, the other the evenings S
entertainment.
In our existing system of edu-
cation we are like an architect be-
ginning his plan with the ornaments.
The right system would be arranged
somewhat as follows: First speaking,
then reading. then writing with SIM
pie composition, and along with these
or Immediately succeeding them
arithmetic elementary mathematics
together with the ordinary laws and
facts OF physics and mechanics
knowledge of plants and animals
anatomy and physiology. the weather
the seasons, elementary astronomy
geography, history; and, after all
these. languages, literature and such
advanced scientific and other studies
as might be preferred.
Through and over all, of course
should go instruction and guidance
in morals. A nation whose youth
were brought up along some such
line as that would not only be un-
conquerable, but it would stand al
the worlds head, not by virtue OF
force, but by virtue of intelligence.
The vice of the literary type OF
education Is that 1t leads to a kind
of mental cigarette smoking, and
tends to destroy the initiative of the
stronger faculties. which, under sci
entific training, deal effectively with
the actualities of life and nature
Everybody should. as far as possible
read the great masterpieces of the
worlds literature. and feed himself
upon them; but without any qualih-
cation. everybody should first be q
fully developed human and that can
not be if he values expression above
performance.
When our age has become chap
ter of ancient history it will be seen
that the crowning achievement of the
Anglo Saxon intellect was not the
writing of Hamlet" or Macbeth .
but the production of the "Mathe-
matical Principles of Natural Philos-
ophy."
Every day you must be educated
men and women who are not asham-
ed to confess that they could nc
more extract the square root of a
number, or tell how far body would
fall in ten seconds, or account for the
phases of the moon, or calculate the
approximate length of day or night
at different times of the year, or eX-
plain the workings of a steam en-
gine, or an auto motor, or a dynamo
or a submarine, or an aeroplane, OF
solve a problem in algebra, or tell the
difference in principle between a
thermometer and barometer, or de-
tect the fallacy in the popular belief
that the Lusitania is still floating
deep beneath the surface somewhere
in the Atlantic because the great
pressure prevents her from reaching
the bottom, or distinguish a planet
from a star, or understand the
strange conduct of gyroscope, or say
how a molecule differs from an atom,
or show the reason why a baseball
pitcher can put a curve in the ball.
or explain why wheels appear to
turn backward pictures than they
could jump over the moon.
Confronted with great practical
problems, outside the narrow range
of their everyday occupation and ex-
perience, they are as helpless as in
fants. They know nothing about ma
ture, her reasons and her laws, her
capacities and her limitations. They
do not know how to measure or how
to calculate. Left alone, unaided,
unfamiliar surroundingings, they are
less capable of taking care of them
selves than the lower animals would
be.
AS have often said: The highest
type of man Excluding moral consid-
erations) is the engineer-and he
may be as moral as the best. He is
the man that is ready to deal with
things because he understands things
1 would have every young person an
engineer in embryo.
Think OF what the soldier going to
Dattle In this war must gain by an
education like that outlined above.
Half the terrors that strike the new
conner on those awful battlefields
may be robbed of their paralyzing
force by the neutralizing effect of the
foreknowledge in his brain. Chem
istry can arm him against the de-
mons of the gas war. knowledge of
ballistics makes the swooping shells
less fearful, acquaintance with the
principles of tir-flight steadies his
nerves in contests with aerial foes.
Familiarity breeds contempt If you
know the sources and limitations of
the powers engaged against you they
lose the advantage of inspiring vague
and superstitious fear. Already the
American soldiers in France have
shown the enormous value of the
turn toward scientific ideals which