World Association?

In the past decade, tyrants have bent scientific effort to military and political ends. And many a man of good will has wailed that science should take a holiday because it has created the modern instruments of war, and technologic advance has caused so much sociological dislocation. Most scientists, if they have been left to their benches and desks, have been too busy to heed or hear. But last week when the American Associatioi for the Advancement of Science met at Indianapolis, it was perfectly plain that its leaders had begun to think about science & society. Their defenses and explanations of science were loud, lyrical and categorical.

Said Edwin Grant Conklin, famed Princeton biologist and retiring A. A. A. S. president: "The ethics of science regards the search for truth as one of the highest duties of man; it regards noble human character as the finest product of evolution: it considers the service of all mankind as the universal good; it teaches that both human nature and human nurture may be improved, that reason may overcome unreason, co-operation supplement competition, and the progress of the human race through future ages be promoted by human intelligence and purpose."

Said Forest Ray Moulton, Chicago astronomer and executive secretary of the Association: "Science is the first line defense of freedom of the mind. Of all things it, on the whole, is most nearly objective and least involved in the prejudices and emotions of men. Its conclusions are capable of being most easily tested. When free, it knows no nationality, race or creed. Its spirit is a model for the world."

For more than a year the idea of a World Association of Science--embracing at least France, Britain, the U. S. and other democracies--has been in the air. It was suggested at the Harvard Tercentenary celebration by Professor Etienne Gilson of France. A group of newspaper reporters at Cambridge, sensing a good story, promoted an unofficial symposium of celebrities who declared themselves in favor of the plan. Official encouragement came from Britain. Newspaper editorials on the subject were reprinted in science journals. Last week at Indianapolis the A. A. A. S. council officially approved the plan for some of the world's most learned men to form an international body of thinkers and knowers that might light up a world darkened by malice, ignorance and fear. Dreamily unpractical though such a notion was in the light of past experience, Secretary Moulton began to draw up U. S. contributions to a world platform on which a World Association of Science, if formed, could stand.

Commented the New York Times: ''No more momentous decision has ever been made by organized science in any country."

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