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THE M A K 0 0 N TIG E II
Page 26
SCIENCE AND THE FUTURE
J. M. Robinson
“The Foremost Scientific Person of this Era has been
elected to the seat of the Presidency of the World Gov
ernment because of his outstanding efforts in aiding in
the curbing of the Great Wave of Depression that swept
the years 1929 through 1945, immediately following the
World War.” Thus reads, perhaps, an extract taken
from the world’s leading newspaper in the year 1950.
This denotes a significant occasion when science was ele
vated to the highest seat possible, the same science that
had rendered so much toward eliminating the devastat
ing adjustment days that wrought so much havoc to hu
manity.
When one speaks of science as benefiting mankind, he
does not intend to establish that idea of the physical,
but also of the abstract values attached. I venture to
say here that it was not the physical that placed us in
such a plight during the years 1929 to the present 1935,
but also the mental state of mind. Therefore, I offer
science as both a cure for the concrete and the abstract
dilemma of our age.
Science not only puts forth scientific explanation and
systematic study, but it contributes to the economic and
social march of mankind, evolving, adapting and inquir
ing about its own possibilities, as well as those of the
earth to which it is tied. Man has senses, bis powers
not fully developing them. Science enables us to widen
the range of our senses to exchange knowledge for mu
tual benefit, quicken choice, and action with reference
to our neighbor, and through association of effort, ad
vance our study.
Science seeks to widen the boundaries of knowledge
and at the same time to perfect techniques of research
in order that its analysis may give us a deeper and at
the same time a more vivid picture and understanding
of the complexities of life upon a diversified earth. Since
we do attempt through thes twin processes of discoveries
and methods to get discipline as well as information out
of them, the secret lies in developing these twin pro
cesses. Science can do it.
Science, with full equipment for deepening the un
derstanding, places us in a position similar to that of
the astronomer, who by perfecting and enlarging his tel
escope deepens his vision of the universe.
Science is taking a great hold upon the destinies of
man. Evidence is verified by the placing of a man of
science at the head of one of the largest schools for
Negro youth. The year 1859 marked an astonishing
epoch in the intellectual history of the world. In no
other year previously had so much been done to liberate
the spirit of man. In that year was published the “Ori
gin of Species” and during the same year the principles
of spectrascopy were discovered. It is, I admit, true
that many ideas preceded Darwin’s of evolution; but
Darwin’s ideas, systematized and fortified, took root,
and there developed the hypothesis, that the principles
of evolution are applicable to nearly—perhaps all
things.
Science does permeate almost every sphere. To our
ideas upon almost any subject; certainly to the religion
and the theologies of the earth’s peoples; to the earth
in that it is very old and the result of evolutionary pro
cesses by which the earth’s surface features and all
things upon it are changing more or less slowly, in an
orderly manner with the passing of time.
(Some amount of speculation preceded Kirchoff’s spec
troscopic view, but with him came the ability to interpret
the sun’s chemical nature and the other stars, and also
hand in hand the realization of the unity of the uni
verse.)
I have mentioned these well-known facts not to in
form my intelligent reader, but to attempt to link the
marvelous accomplishments of the present to the mys
teries of the past, in order to picture to you the mysteries
of the present as being only commonplace things of to
morrow. Therefore I quote “The Spirit of Science,”
which says that research will proceed in the hope and
expectation that with the passing of years the greatest
of mysteries, be they economical, social, religious, or
scientific, in our surroundings on the earth and in our
universe, will one by one be solved by the systematic and
thorough-going methods of science.
ido you know?
By Leroy L. Henderson
That only 40 per cent of American college women
marry; of this number only 4 per cent have offsprings?
That during Reconstruction Days there was a Negro
Lieutenant Governor (who acted as Governor of Louisi
ana), two Senators and eighteen Congressmen?
That Haiti is the only government that pays its in
debtedness in advance?
That Mary McCleod Bethune was chosen as one of the
fifty foremost women in America?
That Vincente Guerro, first President of Mexico, was
a mulatto slave, and that he helped to write the first
Constitution of that country and built free schools and
libraries during his administration?
That Negroes are on the faculties of the following
universities: DePauw, Lafayette, Ind.; Long Island
Medical College, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Boston University:
Harvard Medical School; Northwestern University, and
the University of Chicago? James Weldon Johnson is
a guest professor and Mark Parks is a teaching fellow in
biology at New York University?
That Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, the recognized great
est tap dancer in the world, taught Fred Astaire and a
host of celebrities how to dance—and that Robinson was
named along with President Roosevelt by Margery Wil
son, a noted authority on culture, as one of the twenty
most charming men in the world? Miss Wilson said in
her coast-to-coast radio talk that charm had little to do
with the lack of abuse of verbs and prepositions.—
(College professors and seniors please note.—Editors.)
borders believes that
If you want to know the value of a dollar, try to
borrow one.
One should never brag about bis savings if he wants
to avoid having to refuse to lend them to bis friends.
A youth should caretully select a trade or profession
and watch it; failing in business, he will have something
to fall back on.
Next to honor, health is the dearest of human posses
sions.