Evening star., 1932-11-27
SCIENCE CALLED SOLUTION
OF ECONOMIC, PROBLEMS
Eirst-Rate Minds Offer Means of Creating
Peace and Employment,
Professor Believes.

to be the first major "white-collar'
crisis in American history. In former
decades, when the business cycle dipped
into recurrent trough, many persons
consoled themselves with the thought
that, after ALL only the lower "unem-
playable" proletarianS were affected
and with their crude standards and 8
sop of charity they would survive until
the "upturn" came Now, however, we
find large bodies of well trained men,
graduates of our best colleges and tech
nical institutes in grave difficulties.
Responsibility Divided.
Personnel managers and research
staffs, just because they seem superfiu-
GUS in difficult days, are often the first
to be dismissed. 1t is unlikely that
| demonstrated their ability to solve the
| knottieSt production problems, will
rest content with an outcome primarily
caused by the limitations of our money
and credit system. They recognize that
! failure to plan in detail and to CO.
ordinate the myriad functions of our
business organization is major con-
| tributing factor to the present helpless
condition of industry They under
stand, too, that it is futile to allocate
| responsibility for the situation because
}. ~ lll- lllCFlldUC CulCOIie VI oil I'll
/ tirely inappropriate way Of operating
the mechanism of society They are
| persuaded that one must get down to
basic principles before the functions of
a social institution can legitimately be
prescribed or even effectively per-
formed.
From these remarks it is obvious that
the advancement Of our national well
fare Is not a matter of economies or
politics or even engineering alone 1t
IS process which demands the united
energies of our most gifted sons. 1t
| may be fundamentally an ethical and
philosophical problem, since we must
define clearly and accurately our OBJ
JectiveS and the reasons why they are
worth, while attaining before any head
way can be made. believe that, no
| matter what system of social values
different persons may acknowledge, one
could obtain practically unanimity con-
cerning the desirability of combating
disease, crime, ignorance and poverty
We possess definite professional agen-
cieS medicine, law, education for
dealing with the first three of the great
| evils" but unless one considers the
charity and social aid societies as hav-
ing preventative rather than a rene
dial function, little or no direct attack
upon the blot Of poverty has been
made. We have been fed upon too
many childish eulogieS of poverty and
its service as an agent in building char
acter, but those who know the facts
appreciate the physical. mental and
moral deterioration which abounds in
the homes of the poor. There is very
good reason for believing Ito modify an
ancient phrase) that the lacl: of money
is the root of all evil
Science Versus Poverty.
To apply the resources of modern
science to the task of abolishing pow
erty is an enterprise that stirs even
the most sluggish imagination. 1t Is
futile to say that it cannot be done
because cooperative research has never
yet been permanently defeated. A
great French philosopher of the last
century claimed that knowledge of
the chemical composition of the stars
was one thing which would be forever
hidden from man; 80 years later
German physicist used the spectro-
scope to make the analysis which had
been declared impossible. The limita-
tions of science are the limitations of
the human intellect and none other.
Is it conceivable that rational creatures
will long rest satisfied with a situation
where science can predict to the sec
ond the moment OF an eclipse and yet
be unable to solve the problem of work
for millions of unemployed? The OBJ
vious answer is that scientific method
Is involved in one case and rule-of-
thumb, superstition, or sheer stupidity
in the other. There is no reason why
genius cannot labor with the same dis
interestednesS and the same difference
to personal advantage in attacking the
question of poverty as 1t does in isolat-
ing rare substance merely to fill a
gap in the periodic table.
To some extent scientists themselves
are responsible for their own failure
to make any direct and immediate con-
tribution to the solution of many press
ing social issues because they have
remain within his field; but to q
larger degree our delegated officials and
the public itself are sccountable-the
one for failure to discharge the duties
of statesmanlike leadership bv assign
ing n vast project to the only people
capsbe of handling it. and the other
for its failure to use the power OF COM
munity opinion in psrsu2 ding scientists
that big problems. as we'll as little
oneS, must BE- met. I am sure that
many research workers would gladly
exchange such typical Jobs as counting
/ the facets in a gadfiy's eye, which
simply satisfies personal curiosity for
2 specific task which will permanently
aid in the elimiraticn of human mis-
cry. if they could only be convinced
that they sre wanted and needed and
that the esteem of cociety and their
co'lcaques will not diminish If they
shift from pure to epplied science. In
the last analysis the former exists and
has its right for being only because CT
the support It lend5 the latter. Po7-
crtv will be in our rlidSt until all types
cf research and ell branches Of science
have Joined forces in overcoming the
greatest of human ill5-want, and its
couDanion, suffering