The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-04-08
WHAT is REAL PROGRESS?

In recent highly instructive address be-
fore the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers in Birmingham, DR.. Ira N. Hollis,
president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
with Progress" as his subject, expressed
some views and emphasized some points
which could easily find valued local, as well
as general, application. "The human rea-
SON." said he, may have reached the maxi
mum of its possibilities, and true progress
in the state may ultimately lie in the spread
not only of intelligence, but of spirituality
through devotion to religious ideals. That
is the direction of progress at the present
time with our people and with all peoples if
we are to avoid war in the future and main
tain our republic in the highest way.
While the world demonstrated in the late
frightfully destructive conflict destructive
not only in its material aspects, but through
resultant effects and influences of interna-
tional suspicion and hate, that no progress
had been made toward the prevention Of
such disaster, an object lesson was learned
that may yet produce abundant fruit. The
American nation learned through bitter ex-
perience in that holocaust that ways and
means can and should be adopted under
which the dangers of repetition may be
reduced to minimum. Frequently self
sacrifice and suffering are needed to achieve
what may be called negative as we'll as posi-
tive, progress. Refraning from doing wha.
should not be done is often as effective and
helpful as doing what should be done.
DIR. Hollis expressed the belief that real
progress by the American nation has been
the enormous spread of knowledge and.
through that, the elevation of the average
man. He would not even hope for an ap-
proaeh to perfection; but would look for
the advancement in standards as wholesome
influence on the people. The greatest good
to the greatest number as expressed in the
quickening of the public conscience in wider
respect for and observance of law will fol-
low the larger spread of knowledge and ele-
walton of the average man. Such condi-
ton finds direct application to great and
growing industrial field of activity like Bir-
mingham. Our citizens have been SO alb
sorbed making new records in material pro-
gress that many have overlooked the i'm
portance and value Of law observance in
others if not in themselves. A desirable
change in this respect will come by degrees
as natural sequence of what the speaker
referred to as the wider spread of knowl-
edge and the elevation of the average man."
The point is that those who are already
blessed with that larger knowledge and
higher civic conscience owe it to their fell
low men, through provision of adequate ed
vocational facilities, to extend these fields
of broader knowledge and higher standards
To c11Io i,,o~
not so mech the size of a city's population
or its comparative growth in numbers set
forth in the official census that counts for
a real progress, as those standards of civic
uprightness and ideals of community life
that make city and its people truly great.
One citizen who appreciates the force of
law observance as a builder of what is worth
while, even though he contributed compare
lively little to gross material production, is
worth more than dozen who, while directly
responsible for marked enlargement of out
put, ignore or evade man-made law in its
application to relations between fellow be-
ings and in it's influence in elevating COM
munity ideals and improving civic standards,
and disregard the higher moral law that
points the way to distinction between right
and wrong and governs mans attitude to-
ward the higher things. High standards in
small measure far outweigh low standards
in bulk.
Let it not be forgotten in this connection
that Sodom and Gomorrah both had large
populations; but God Almighty did not con-
slider either as worthy of existence, and He
destroyed them both.
All those noliticians who ara not satisfied