a note on the anti-evolutionist attitude
TRANSCRIPT
168 - SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS
said recently: ^While all of the divisions of the camp are popu-lar, it is felt because of the unusual opportunities which thesummer school affords boys that this feature of the camp israpidly becoming its most popalar division. We try to giveevery boy what he most needs in his school work back home.Classes are organized in subjects for which there is a sufficientdemand, and the following subjects are taught in any event:English, French,’ Spanish, Mathematics, History, Geography,Motor Mechanics, Woodwork, Chemistry, Physics, Botany,Zoology."Each student is required to take two subjects, and a passing
grade carries with it a full semester credit. Passing gradesdepend upon deportment and general conduct, as much as uponrecitation. Each student is required to complete forty recita-tion periods of ninety minutes in each subject. School hoursare from 8:00 a. m. unfcil 12:00 m. every day except Sunday.One hour of this time�from 8:00 to 9:00�is devoted to super-vised study. The time from 9:00 to 12:00 is divided into tworecitation periods. Between classes a short recreation periodis occupied with physical drills, games, etc.^
In closing, Mr. Smith said:. "All I can add is, that if we turnout at the end of this summer the type of boys we sent homeat the end of the term last year, we all will feel that we haveaccomplished something permanent in the building of betterboys."
A NOTE ON THE ANTI-EVOLUTIONIST ATTITUDE.BY STEPHEN G. RICH.
26 Seventh Ave., New York City. -
The recent outbreak of anti-evolutionism needs probably to be con-sidered from many angles before we shall arrive at any satisfactory methodof dealing with it. Perhaps the most significant portion of it has escapedour attention, while we have been listening to the irrelevancies andvagaries of Mr. Bryan and the people of certain churches in Kentucky.
This significant portion is comprised in two facts:1. The bulk of the people think of evolution as a "theory" and regard
it as far from being solidly established.2. The bulk of the people believe that evolution means primarily
and fundamentally that the human race is descended from monkeysthat today exist as such in the jungles of the Congo or Guinea, and thatthis descent occurred recently.It is purely a matter of applied science to devise means to meet these
difficulties. Until we have faced them, we may expect that the anti-evolutionist attitude will crop up again and again, and possibly at timesmost harmful to scientific work of great value. It is, therefore, in order tosuggest some possible leading-thoughts in dealing with the matter.
COAL AND RAILROADS 169
So long as we talk of "the evolution theory" or "theories of evolution"in our more or less popularizing speech and writings, we are encouragingthis attitude. The popular mind has, moreover, thanks to our discussionsin the past, identified evolution with Darwin’s theory of natural selection;any attack upon that is thus taken as an attack upon evolution.To offset this phase of the matter, we may find it advisable to give wide
publicity to what actual cases of 'volution have been observed. This doesnot mean the palaeontological evidence; it means that we must collectand present strongly the available data as to actual observed transmuta-tions of species. Several times I have been asked by thoughtful anti-evolutionists for such cases; there appears to be some desire for a "crucialcase" which will settle the question as to whether evolution is a fact ornot. Such cases as are relevant to this are not many. Ernst Haeckel,as far back as 1876, .claimed that he had actually observed transforma-tion of one species of sponge into another: the offspring of one specieswere sufficiently different from the parent to form a "good" specias asdetermined by the criteria of systematists in that group. The well-knowncases of mutation, especially of Oenoihera as reported by De Vries, are alsosufficiently large transformations to be here relevant. The work of.Kel-logg and others, on the color and pattern variations of certain Coccinelidaein California, and the changes undergone through a period of years, wouldappear also to offer cases in which variability crosses the lines of "good"species, and in which variation proceeds to the extent of separating twogroups that would, if not previously known, probably be considered"good" species.Evidence of this sort will go far to convince the public that evolution
is a fact, not a theory. Of course, it must be well and repeatedly pre-sented.We may also find it advantageous to emphasize strongly the actual
known facts as to the descent of man, and in particular the emphasis needsto be laid upon the fact that no scientist holds (or has held, so far as Iknow), the absurd doctrine mentioned above.
This is essentially a problem in the application of social psychology, andin pedagogy. It will be solved only when we attack it on the basis of aim-ing to make general the knowledges that we have. These knowledgesand the attitudes involved in them will, if we persist and spread them, be-come effective controls of social thought and’action. Thus they offer agood probability of allaying permanently the anti-evolutionist folly.
COAL AND THE RAILROADS.About half the freight loaded on our railroads, according to an estimate
made by a well-informed man experienced in both mining and transporta-tion, is contributed by our coal mines. This portion includes coal loadedat the mines and coke loaded at the ovens, both consigned to consumersall over the country, and coal loaded for the railroads themselves, as wellas articles of mine equipment and supply loaded at industrial centers moreor less distant from the coal mines. Even though this figure may later beshown, on fuller presentation of the facts, to be somewhat high, the big,outstanding truth is that the coal mines and the railroads are copartnerson a large scale in the business of the country. This copartnership, basedon mutual interest�the railroads being the largest purchaser of coal andthe mines being the largest customer of the’railroads�gave special sig-nificance to a conference held recently between a representative com-mittee of the American Railway Association and the United States CoalCommission. .