The Diplomacy of Science

Brisk and dapper in his striped suit, Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes paused a moment deep in thought, as the New York train pulled in at Northampton, Mass., station. Had he remembered to pack: 1) his purple socks? 2) his lemon-yellow shoes? 3) elegant ties, in hues and number sufficient? And had he packed too, in his mind, plenty of his bright, daring, fetching, original phrases, enough to give the solemn old boys a jolt?

There was for instance that phrase about being unable any longer to view this earth as "a training camp preparatory for life in the new Jerusalem." For six years he had been trying it out on the girls in his sociology classes at Smith College. When they had heard it once or twice, they never forgot it.

Thus assured, Joker Barnes grabbed the train for New York. Earnest scientists from all over North America were gathering for the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, under the thoughtful presidency of famed Dr. Henry Fairfield. Osborn (TIME, Dec. 31). Jolter Barnes fidgeted while they delivered their addresses. Then he got his chance.

Up he stood and declared that man needs a new concept of God based on science, a concept such as Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, famed modernist preacher, might formulate. He said the ten commandments would have to be revised for this enlightened age. He declared there is no sin.

Then last week Jolter Barnes went back to his sophomores at Smith, while mountains heaved behind him.

Dr. Osborn gave the first heave. He declared Jolter Barnes's theological speech an unwarranted intrusion on a scientific body. "There is no conflict between science and religion. Some of the greatest men on science have been very religious." Dr. Joseph Mayer, head of the Tufts College sociology department, hastened to aver: "I disagree most emphatically with Mr. Barnes."

From the clergy came a wry farrago. Dr. Milo Hudson Gates at the Chapel of the Intercession called Jolter Barnes a smart-Alec. Dr. Lyman P. Powell at St. Margaret's remarked that Jolter Barnes confused front page publicity with ordered knowledge. Rabbi Nathan Krass at Temple Emanuel contended: "Science enhances the glory of God." Cardinal Hayes at St. Patrick's Cathedral listed a score of great men in biology, anthropology, astronomy, surgery, pathology, who have been Catholic, religious.

Dr. Fosdick ignored Jolter Barnes's invitation to make up a new God. Said he: "The foremost religious minds are becoming more scientific, and the foremost scientific minds are becoming more religious. It is the little minds in both camps that cause the trouble."

Back home at Smith College, President William Allan Neilson found his mail doubled over night. The extra letters were from alumnae, begging him to drop Jolter Barnes.

Meanwhile patient observers wondered what the heaving was all about. For this address was nothing new. The gags were threadbare, the gist substantially the same as a speech Jolter Barnes gave two years ago in New York, before the Freethinkers' Society. As for the philosophy, that, they remarked, was older than St. Augustine.* But circumstances have lent what would have been harmless a new menace.

Following the lead of Tennessee and Arkansas, some 20 states are considering acts to prohibit the teaching of evolution. Dr. Osborn is a sort of U. S. Secretary of State for Science. Nothing alarms him more than the spread of the antiscience movement. Dr. Barnes's address tended to undermine the Osborn diplomacy by scaring ignorant people. Therefore, in the name of Science, Dr. Osborn denounced it. ^

*"I thought not of Thee, O God, under the figure of an human body; since I began to hear aught of wisdom, I always avoided this; and rejoiced to have found the same in the faith of our Spiritual .Mother, Thy Catholic Church." (From the Confessions, Book VII-cir 307 A.D.