The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-07-03
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

! DROBABLY the most important event in the
Il held OF literature and scholarship during
the current season is the completion of the oreat
encyclopedias Of the Social Sciences" edited
by Edwin r. A. Seligman Alvin johnson and a
group of able associates. Us volumes. The Mac
milan Co.. S750D
The Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences
MAJ without eXaggeration be regarded as the
mo timely and significant intellectual under
taking of the second quarter of the twentieth
century.
No research or compilation in the field of
natural science or technology can compare with
1t IN potential contribution to the ultimate we'll
being of mankind Indeed further advances in
science and technology, without corresponding
progress in introducing science into the control
OF hum1 I'D society, are likely to be more of
menace than benefit.
if this statement seems sweeping we have but
to compare the relative recent progress of the
natural and social sciences to discover what is
implied.
The most revolutionary factor in modern
civilization has been the rise, development and
application of natural science. This has given
us our modern machinery, our methods of trans
portation, from the first crude locomotives and
Fulton's Clermont to the Twentieth Century
plane, the Graf Zeppelin and the New York sub
way system 1t has brought into being our mon
ster factories and our urban civilization. 1t has
placed the infinite resources of chemistry at
the disposal of mankind.
CCIENCE has eliminated the causes of many
- diseases, reduced the dangers of contagion
and devised infinitely more effective type of
therapy and surgery.
Abraham Lincoln would be far more at home
in Swiss lake-dwelling village of 1900 B. c.
than he would in the New York City of 1885
In the mechanics of our civilization we exhibit
wholly new panorama which would daze, con-
fuse and puzzle the founding fathers of the re-
public.
Nhat have we done in the way of applying
the remarkable resources of science to the alter
alton of our ideas and institutions? Virtually
nothing In this field we have not advanced be-
yond the fathers Rather, we have at least
slightly retrogreSsed.
No man not uniformed or bitter partisan
would be likely to contend that Warren Hard
ing, Gavin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were
as enlightened and emancipated beings as the
ma jority of the fathers To carry this COMPARE
son beyond the pale of any suspicion Of parti
sanship. it is certainly true that Thomas Jeffer-
son burst through the letters of superstition
and convention much more thoroughly than did
Woodrow Wilson.
1t is obvious that man can not go on indeh-
nitey living in metropolitan New York of the
twentieth century and thinking in terms of the
cave life of our prehistoric ancestors or of the
simple farming community of 1850
A
~ to be found in gradually but certainly put
ting the control of society in the hands of the
custodians of contemporary secular wisdom-in
other words, of the experts in the social sciences
and in aesthetics. Otherwise there is no prospect
that man will be able to cope with the in
creasing problems and complexities of our urban
mechanical age. The first step is to indicate
clearly Just what the social sciences are at
present and what they have to contribute to our
knowledge of human problems and social
progress.
This task is executed with consummate skill
and thoroughneSs and real authority in the
Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences" The
reader will find covered all the major facts and
problems of human life and social institutions,
together with fine biographical sketches of all
social scientists except, unfortunately those now
living The material is Interestingly written and
the whole gigantic enterprise is a model Of the
printing art.
In his Economies of Business" american
Technical Society, $3.50, Prof. William j. Ora
ham gives us a clear and authoritative intro
duction to contemporary economic principles.
The problem of securing more efficient and
honest government is considered by Prof. Carl
j. Friedrich and his associates in their Problems
of American Public Service" (McGraw-Hill 1885,
So, an admirable introduction TO personnel
administration in public circles.