The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-03-11

actuated BY interested motives; moreover,
their bodily adoption of the arguments
even the language, which up till last No
vember we had heard solely from those
among us who wanted the kaiser to win
the war. raises the suspicion that they
are appealing to latent prejudiccs rather
than> TO the rule of reason. But these
arguments do not apply to the experts.
/ What of their objections?
| In 1892 the experts said that anybody
! foolish enough to ship with Christopher
Columbus would fall off the edge of the
world into Heaven knew what 1t took
an act of faith on the. part of a woman
to prove that the experts were wrong;
as they had been wrong in, the case OF
, most OF the navigators who made geog-
raphy and history before Columbus. The
] experts thought that Jason would never
get the Golden Fleece. but he got it;
from Jason through Columbus to Peary
and Scott and AmundseR the story is
more or less the same.
The history of the physical sciences is
I even more eliminating. To take re-
cent instance, Mr. Weagants announce
ment of the elimination of static inter
ference with wireless telegaphy, when
first made, was received with scorntul
ha-has and incredulous ho-hos. But the
lothor night Mr.. Weagant stood up be-
fore meeting of experts and explained
how he did it, and Professor Pupin and
other learned men declared that they
were satisfed=as they would, have been
| anyhow, when the invention was put IL
], operation and proved that it would work
j When Edison first talked about light
Il iEg houses with electricity the experts
. knew that it was impossible TO subdiyldt
a current sufficiently to rfake TINS pos
> sibIe. But to-day we all read by eleetri,
light. When venturesome mariners frs
! talked about sending steamers across lht
, Atlantic. a hundred years ago, the learn
/, cd DR. Dionysius l.ardner, a scientist O
! thigh repute, proved by irreproachabl,
mathematics that no steamer could carr.
: coal enough for transatlantic trip. Oh
liver Wendell Holmes has left a greene
memory in literature than in medicine
but it will not be forgotten that whc
The discovered that puerperal fever wa
contagious MS professional rivals in 30;
ton and elsewhere called him a quact.
The list might be heightened indefinite
ly: one more instance will suffice Simo
Ncwcomb was a very great mathemet
clan, and Simon Newcomh, who die
mo years ago, proved not long before h
death by calculations convincing to III
world of experts that no heavier-thar
air machine could fly 0rville and Wi
bur Wright were called Missionaries i
Iscientists and nuts by their neighbour
but they flew
Not all Missionaries are right, even G,
lpert visionaries; but the majority opinio
Iqf experts is nearly always, if not exact
lwrong, at least few years behind An
PERSONALLY enough; for the more exnal
an expert is, the less willing to adm
that another expert can, be more expe
than himself Doubtless the man wi
first lit fire with fints had TO do it III
der the rdicule of experts in lightiT
lire by the method of the fathers, ii
rubbing of sticks, who knew that tn,
couldn't light a. fire with fiints and til;
consequently no one else could do. it; al
ithey doubtless invoked the memory of Il
ancients as eloquently as do the oppo
ents Of the league of nations.