Evening star., 1929-01-03

The artist PhidiaS would not have
been admitted to membership in any
shoemakers' union. He could not have
chopped out wooden shoes which would
have fitted a Dutchman nor sewed a
pair of pumps that any society de-
butante would dance in. Phidias was
a dub as cobbler, But how he could
paint!
There was a trick that Phidias knew,
besides planting: 1t was to defer to the
expert knowledge of specialists. 1t is
big thing when any man knows that ne
does not know it all,
So Phidias used to set up his master
pieces of painting where the hoi-polloi
would look at them while he sat behind
the canvas and chuckled at the criti-
cisms he heard.
There sauntered along two shoe
makers; they stopped to look at the
new picture, and one of them-perhaps
an Observation-Disclosures the shape of
the shoes, and next day the picture
showed bigger and better Shoes" such
as would have won a vote of appreci-
alton from any shoe manufacturers as
sociatiOn.
This swelled the head of the little
he was an art connoisseur. With In
flated chest, he called a crowd about
him to inform them that Phidias was
conservative, archaic and far from
modernist in art-"For proof of which
look at the anatomy of that torso!" he
exclaimed.
What Phidias said to that cobbler as
ne stepped from behind his picture has
become history, but is still unknown to
certain college professors and budding
statesmen. Both need to study Phidias,
together with what certain professor
of literature said who has recently dag
nosed the English language and found
it anemic in "cusS words"
There are two meetings in New York
of college professors-the annual meet
ing of the American Association of Uni
versity Professors and a meeting of the
Society for the Advancement of Sci
ence. These professors take themselves
very seriously-much more Solemnly
even than do some statesmen from the
sticks. Statesmen have given offense to
the Sc. D.'s and Ill. D.'s" and the
learned men in Columbia assembled
have decided to rebuke them. There
was no way that the doctors could
rebuke the statesmen but by adopting
ponderouS resolutions.
Whereas statesmen are ignoramuses
OR ignorami-therefore be 1t resolved,
That an amendment to the Federal Con-
stitution should be adopted forbidding
State Legislatures from meddling in
matters they cannot comprehend-Such
as evolution. All laws forbidding the
teaching of that sacred bull of science
are hereby repealed and their makers
enjoined.
'Resolved, That what is taught as
science should be determined by quail
fed experts in their fields rather than
by popular vote.
BE it further resolved. Any legisla-
ton attempting to limit the teaching of
any widely accepted scientific doctrine
is profound mistake, which cannot
fail to retard the advancement of knowl-
edge OF human welfare.
Also resolved. When writers Of text
books and teachers of youths accept
money for false propaganda on scien-
tific subjects. the Kellogg multilateral
treaty abolishing war is. and of right
ought to be, suspended and duly COM
pentent 'cusser' be employed to admin
lister pedagogical rebuke and punish
ment."
IldJ tHe way fIllQldS nlnnSeiI mlgnJ
have declared that the cobbler or peda-
gogue should stay by his last or his die
tionary. When we want science we
want it administered by a scientist.
When we want economics or theology
that's different.
Economics is a problem for states
men. Theology is system of thought
for specialists who have devoted due
consideration to its depths. Economies
comes from the brains of thinkers from
the sticks. Where should we find the
ology? PLATE was not from the sticks
nor was he college scientist. but he
gave a conundrum which neither the
statesman nor the scientist has ever
answered, What Is truth?"
X X X X
1t was only yesterday" that science
was absorbed in alchemy and astrol-
ogy. Science sold charms for the
lovesick. Science declared that "the
sun do move"--until science rebelled
against itself. Science measured the
time between Eden and New York, and
found 1t less than 1000 years. Science
bled patients to rid them of their evil
spirits.
After a while theologists swallowed
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