Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-01-05
AMERICAN PRESIDENT MADE ROYAL ACADEMY
 OF SCIENCE MEMBER
President and Mrs. Wilson Occuuied Seats Between King and Queen, While Honor Was Conferred.

Rome, Jan. 4.-President Wilson was made a member of the "Rcale accademia de lincei," or Royal Acad- emy of Science, this morning. The President and Mrs. Wilson were seated between the King and Queen, while among others present were the American Ambassador, Thomas Nel- son Page, and other members of the diplomatic corps and many distin- guished Italian officials and scien- lists.
 Senator D'Onidio, who is president of the Academy, hailed the President as the worthy representative of the culture of the new world, which now revivifies the ancient culture of the old world. In reply President Wilson said:
 "Your Majesty, MT. President and
 Gentlemen of the Acadepy:
 "I have listened with the profound est appreciation to the beautiful ad- dress which you have been kind enough to deliver, and l want to say how deeply 1 appreciate the honor you have conferred upon me in sense in which the continuity of human thought is in the care of bodies like this. There is a serenity, a long view, on the part of science, which seems to
 be of no age, but to carry human thought long from generation to gen. ] eration freed from the elements of coercion.
 Therefore, it is, I dare say, with all men of science a matter of pro- found regret and shame that science should in a nation which has made science it's boast have been put to such dishOnorable uses in the recent war. Every just mind must condemn those who so debased the studies of men of science as to use them against humanity and, therefore, it is part of your task and of ours, to reclaim , science from this disgrace, to show | that she is devoted to the advance ment and interest of humanity, and not to it's endorsements and de- struction
 q wish very much that I could be- Heve that I was in some sense a worthy representative of the men Of science of the United States. I can not claim to be in any proper sense man of science. My studies have been ill the field of politics all my life, and, while politics may by court esy be called science, it is a science which is often practiced without rule and is very hard to set up standards for. so that one can be sure that one is steering the right course.
 "At the same time, while perhaps there is no science of government there ought to be,Al dare say, in gov ernment itself, the spirit of science, that is to say, the spirit of disinter- estedness, the spirit of seeking after the truth so far as the truth is ready to be applied to human circumstances. Because, after all, the problem of politics is to satisfy men in the ar engagements of their lives, is to realize for them, so far. as possible, the ob- jects which they have entertained generation after generation, and have been so often postponed.
 Therefore, l have often thought that the Universities and Academies of science have their part in simplify ing the problems of political affairs, and thus assisting to advance human ;, life along lines of political structure and political action.
 "It is very delightful to draw apart for little while into this quiet place and feel again that familiar touch of thought and of knowledge which it
 has been my privilege to know fami-
 liarly through so great part of my life. If I have come out on more adventurous and disordered stage, ] hope that have not lost the recollect- 1 ion and may in some sense be assist ed by councils such as yours"