The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-04-03
By WILLIAM PARKER,
Cosmopolitan News Service Staff
Correspondent
(Copyright, 1924. by. Cosmopolitan

News service)
PASADENA, CAL, April 3.-Be.
ware Of the social psalmist who
sings a song of class hate and
sounds the millenial day when all
great fortunes will be divided
equally among the peoples Of the
world
Divided today, these great for.
tunes would give each one of us
only 10 per cent more than we have
at present.
But there is a more vital point,
a social menace Of terrifying aspect,
bound up in this insidious propa-
ganda Of the dishonest or mistaken
men and women.
And that menace Is the shutdown
Of America 8 great day Of progress
in commerce, science, art, literature
and religion.
Famous novelists, men whose
business it is to study the social
phase Of modern civilization, have
said that this civilization Is plung-
ing heedlessly toward oblivion.
But what Is the opinion Of a ia
nous scientist on this question?
Slowly Learning to Think
Here is what DIR. Robert Andrews
Millikan, director Of the Norman
Bridge laboratory of the Califirnia
Institute of Technology, has to say:
Man himself is ust now emery
ing from the Jungle" said DIR.
Millikan. 1T was only a few hun.
dred years ago that he began to
try to set aside all his prejudices
and his preconceptions, to suspend
- L. I'D ~ 1 L.
facts before him, to spare no pains
first to see all sides Of the sirua-
ton and then let his reason and
his intelligence, instead Of his pas
sion and his prejudice, control his
decisions. That Is called the scicn-
tific method.
"A British visitor who has travel
ed and who has lived in this coun.
try recently, told me that, If his
analysis was correct, the United
another war than was any nation
of Europe. But IL another such
was as the last Is started, I, for
one, fear that the world may bid
good-by to civilization. l am far
tory Of central Asia, once the cen
again, the very recent history of
sible to destroy civilization COM
pletely in very few years Of
time.
No Formula, to Offer.
LET those who deliberately set
to work by distortion and untruth,
by misrepresentation and cynical
mistrust Of motives, to stir up class
hates and class prejudiceS in Amer
lea, reflect well upon these things
Some of them do it from base mo-
tives, because the mob has votes
or pennies; others have good enough
intentions, but neither the intelli-
gence nor the training to catch
the scientific spirit and to be able,
or even to try. to distinguish truth
from falsehood.
but what is the remedy? / have
no nostrums to propose. The longer
one lives, the less confidence does
he have in any universal formula.
The only solution there can be is
the slow growth Of a larger degree
OF both public intelligence and pub
lie conscience than we now have.
Intelligence enables one to know
better what he ought to do, while
conscience keeps him doing as he
knows he ought.
"Four.fifths Of all the experiments
which we make in our physical
laboratories are found to be directed
along wrong lines and have to be
abandoned. There Is no reason to
suppose that any larger percentage
Of the efforts which are made to.
ward social, political, or educational
reforms are in the actual direction
Of progress.
"It is my own belief that no eff.
forts toward social readjustments or
toward the redistribution Of wealth
have one-tenth part as good a
chance of contributing to human
we'll being as have the efforts of
the physicists, the chemists, the
biologists, and the engineers. An
eminent and progressive, economist
told me lately that no sort of redis-
tribution of the wealth now avail.
able could possibly add more than
10 per cent to the income of the
average man, and probably much
less than that
Not o Millennium.
ITO replace Tor the totler a dollar
meal by a dollar and ten.cent meal
lie scarcely my idea Of the mil.
lenium.
1.-THE spirit Of religion and. the
shirt Of science are going to Join
hands. This combination Is the
only nostrum which there is for
human ills, the only hope for a
paradise on earth, and each Of us
has the opportunity to do his bit
toward bringing II about.
EssIaN hA,,asaal