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THE MAROON TIGER
of inexorable reason. If we believe a thing and cannot
prove it scientifically, then we must prove that we ought
to believe it without being able to prove it. We ought
to search the philosophy and efficacy of our marriage
system. Is it the system of Jesus established or did
Jesus really establish a type of marriage? Is it un
christian to change it or is it inevitable that we must
change it? Is evolution the most rational interpreta
tion of how the earth and things came to be what they
are? It is amazing how many people—posing as in
vestigators of truth -are afraid to frankly face these
questions and try to work out a personal, rational in
terpretation of them. We must work out an idea in re
gard to war. Men have slept for nearly two thousand
years, have allowed ten millions of the ripest fruit of
the noon-day of our civilization to perish, and forty
million souls to be burled into eternity, a social order
to be morally, politically, and socially wrecked, in order
to be shaken from their lethargy and learn that war is
un-Christian. Shall we continue to cry “My country
right or wrong!” Cannot a nation sin as well as an
individual ?
To be honest with ourselves and our childrens’ chil
dren, we must be willing to cast aside anything that
we are convinced is irrational and false. We must feel
free to face unbiased the tide of skepticism, cynicism,
agnosticism and atheism. Oidy by sucli a process is it
possible to fit our thought and shape our institutions to
the shifting directions of our moving world.
THE NEGRO AS A SCIENTIST
B. F. Beverly, ’29
Ever since Nature imprisoned in roaring cataracts
exhaustless energy for the service of mankind, ever since
she stored away in the bowels of the earth beds of coal,
and rivers of rocks, there has been the will to know.
This hunger for knowledge, which causes men to add
to the sum-total of human knowledge, by reason of
original research in some specific field of inquiry and
also welds existent knowledge together, and deduces
therefrom some philosophical principle of universal ap
plication, or discovers some cosmic law of considerable
importance, is fundamentally influencing and shaping
the thoughts of the Negro.
The Negro in his comprehensive study has arrived at
the conclusion that there is no exact line of demarcation
between animate and inanimate matter, no precise limit
where inanimate nature ends and life begins. The trans
ition is gradual and insensible, for, just as a living or
ganism is made of the same substances as the mineral
world, so life is a composite of the same physical and
chemical phenomena that we find in the rest of nature.
With this thought, the Negro has gone into the labora
tory to determine which is the mightier, the test tube
or the statute book. Foremost among the group are
these: Geo. W. Carver, who a few years ago while the
South was panic-stricken as a small black insect rav
aged the cotton crops and threatened the wealth of the
whole South with “boll weevil plague,” gritted his teeth
and in the laboratory at Tuskegee, silently began to
measure test tube by test tube, and when failing crops
caused despair among southern farmers, Carver, the
scientist, stepped to the door of his workshop and pointed
out to the South a new source of wealth.
“The three Ps,” said Geo. W. Carver, “potatoes, pea
nuts, and pecans, will form the new wealtli of the South
land.” When cotton failed and while men were still
questioning his meaning, he brought out of his labora
tory the results of patient experimentation; one hundred
commercial products from the ordinary sweet potato,
one hundred and forty-five from the peanut, and ninety-
five from the pecan. From the potato he has produced
all ingredients needed in cake baking. The magic color
which adorns Tutankahamen’s tomb and stands resplen
dent and unfaded after thirty centuries, and art long lost
to the modern workers in pigment, this scientist has pro
duced in cold-water paints, products compounded from
the day he has dug out of the hills and pits of Alabama.
James Parsons, who is employed by the Duriron Com
pany in the capacity of chemist, specializes in electro
chemical work and has been able to handle efficiently
the company's interests. He not only has charge of the
chemical laboratory, but also does research work of
an electrochemical and metallurgical nature. The re
search work is confined mostly to the development of
alloys, both ferrous and non-ferrous which have a pro
nounced acid resistance.
Through the genius of Mr. Parsons a non-ferrous
metal has recently been developed in the experimental
laboratories and foundries which is not only a resistant
to various acids, but is readily machinable. It has a
tensile strength of approximately seventy thousand
pounds per square inch, giving it an advantage over
most materials of this kind at present.
In the field of metallurgy, E. J. McMillan is a po
tent factor. He started as a laborer in the Cleveland
Hardware Company. He became, afterwards, assistant
in the laboratory; by the time the white chemist had
allowed his prejudice to come to the point to say one
or the other must go. he had demonstrated his superior
educational qualities and was given the chief position.
In the field of sanitary and applied chemistry, Mme.
Erlanda Goode Robeson bas made wonderfpl success in
the several research problems she has undertaken.
Dr. Ernest Just, of Howard University, in the field
of biology has produced a profound work on the sub
ject of fertilization. His results have been so carefully
arrived at that today when the subject of fertilization is
approached, his conclusions are quoted as bearing the
most thorough explanation of “the instantaneous and ir
reversible reaction at the cortex of the egg.”
Thus we see that the voice of the Negro in science is
not still, but is greatly influencing the whole trend of
scientific research.
YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE KING’S
MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE
W. E. Gardner, ’31
That’s all right. I'll sit right here. I left here Friday
morning, June 1, and it just happened I met with a
fine young lady who was interested in “Y” work. She
was on her way to the Y. W. C. A. Conference. She
had been on her campus for three years and she knew
well the problems of the campus which we discussed.
As she talked she held me spell-bound. Finally with all
that inspiration, I got off the train at King’s Mountain.
Hurriedly, I was taken to Lincoln Academy where the
Student’s Y. M. C. A. Conference was being held. I
arrived about four o’clock, just in time to attend the
first session in which Mr. Craver spoke. Mr. Craver