st a time when most bourgeois
'statesmen” were ,viding auwn
he Munich road, became one
his guiding policies for Am-
prica, and Jed him to join with
Vhurchill and Stalin at Teheran
md Yalta in planning for world
7 ecace and security.

e

TOW that Roosevelt is gone,
© what of the future?
‘There was a day when his
nemies would have rejoiced at

S.death, for then it could have
7 cant an American return to
olationism and the victory of
seism. These enemies are
? 0 late now to prevent victory
_ the field of battle, both in
)irope and in the Pacific. But

D:tory may stand unfinished.
|) ready his former political op-
ments among the Tory Repub-
ans, and reactionaries every-
Here, raise their heads in hope
at here at last is their op-
Tuunity to undo his work. The
ophets of gloom deliberately
Sead fears. President Tru-
)as abilities are questioned.
» ¢ situation following the

odrow Wilson are recalled,
if to say that Roosevelt’s
ath, too, may have the same
fe outcome.

[here are, indeed, some
ikinge similarities, at least
|their externals, between the
3 days of Lincoln and of
osevelt. Like Lincoln, Rgose-
(> was just beginning a new
/n of office. Like Lincoln, he
'"'d to see the very eve of
)ory without beingy able to
F® part in the construction of
peace. Even the sorrowing
“Pions who gathered last
*kend along the thousand-
> route of the train bearing
former president’s body up
6a Georgia to Washington
(lis the tragic journey of
©:oln’s body in that lonesome
) ral train which gave Am-
|ans the last glimpse of their
Eved Ciyil War leader.

=) 2t there the similarities end.
BR oln’s assashination remov-
salmost the only man then
©ble of planning America’s
tte for progress. The Abo-
Faist movement, the major
™ ressive force in existence,
© breaking up, its mission
‘mplished with Emancipa-
The labor movement had

e 2ely bezun to organize. But
achievements of Roosevelt
©1g his three historic terms
© behind a mighty people’s
sment, with its base among
14-million members of the
2 unions. Where Lincoln’s
a Came in a period of de-
ung capitalism, with all
Was to mean in future im-
list competition among the
powers, Roosevelt’s un-

j

oy

of the Bie Three nations,
|e unity had stood so well
far and will stand in peace.
e Lincoln’s death left be-
a group of administration
ts, both in Congress and
3 Cabinet, Who were oppos-
his policies, Roosevelt’s

_ leaves a generally pro-

ers pledged to earry his
tic and international: poli-
orward. This was indi-
in Monday’s speech by his
Sor, President Harry S.

= Roosevelt

piths of Abraham Lincoln and

Sf.

Truman, before both Houses of
Congress.

_ And the “American people now
have powerful allies in the fight
for a just and lasting peace.
Major factor is the Soviet
Union. There are the people of
Britain, and all those hundreds
of millions in Hurope and Asia
Whe have learned the need for
world security. There is the
new world trade union federa-
tion. All these nations and
sroups, all these millions of
People, have fought fascism too
bravely and too well to permit
victory and peace to slip from
their hands now.

It may be that FDR was
thinking of this when just a
few weeks ago he delivered his
annual message to Congress on
the State of the Nation in which
he declared: :

“We propose to stand to-
gether with the United Na-
tions not for the war alone,
but for the victory for which
the war is fought.

“Tt is not only a common
danger whieh unites us, but
4a common hope. Ours is an

association not of ' govern-
ments but of peoples — and
the people’s hope is for

peace. Here, as in England;
in England, as in Russia; in
Russia, as in China; in
France, and through the con-
tinent of Europe, and through-
out the world, whereyer men
love freedom. the hope and
Purpose of the peoples are for
peace—a peace that is dur-
able and secure.

“Tit will not be easy to cre-
ate this people’s peace. .
But the continuance and as-
Surance of a living peace
must, in the long run, be the
work of the peoples them-
Selives.”

That brilliant passage, spok-
en just a few weeks before he
died, might well be his epitaph.
And if the world and the com-
mon people of the world mourn
for him, let it be a mourning:
which does not countenance de-
spair, but rather takes heart

from his own indomitable cour-—
age.

The Royal

April 21, 1945 — Page 13

Society |

By J B. S. HALDANE (Fellow of The Royal Society )

; —london.
"THE Royal Society of

London for Improvine
Natural Knowledge, to give
it its full title, received its

first Charter in 1662. But
it began in 1645 in London,
then the headquarters of the
Parliament “at a time when, by
cur civil wars, academical
studies were much interrupted
at both our universities,” as
Dr. John Wallis puts it in his
account of its origin. :

But for the war the Tercen-
tenary of this jmportant event
would certainly be celebrated.

“Divers worthy persons in-
quisitive into natural philoso-
phy and other arts of human
learning” met weekly to dis-
cuss what is now called Science
“precluding matters of theology
and State affairs.”

At the end of the Civil War

some moved to Oxford, but
these were mostly expelled
When Charles IT returned, and
the present Society was there-
fore founded in London.
Royalist Oxford had little use
for science, In 1669 the
diarist Evelyn wrote that Dr.
South, the university orator,
made a speech containing “some
malicious and indecent reflec.
tions on the Royal Society, as
underminers of the university,
which was very foolish and un-_
true, as well as unseasonable.”
Oxford has only repented of

this attitude within living mem- ,

ory, and Cambridge has played

a greater part both in Scientific

teaching: and research.

Sir Henry Lyons, who was for
some years treasurer of the
Society, on his retirement wrote
“The Royal Society 1660-1940”
the first history of the Society
Since 1848: though it was only
published after his death. It is
of interest “not only to scien-
tists, but to every student of
British social history.

The founders of the “Invis-
ible College” which later be-
came the society, were mem-
bers of the then progressive
bourgeoisie. None of them were
even knights, let alone peers,
though one became a bishop and

[I -DREAMED My SHIP WAS Ne
TORPEDOED --AND THAT I WAG

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I GOT NEAR A JAP-HELD ISLAND \| BE
AND THE NIPS WERE GONNA TAKE
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an earl’s son soon joined them.

After the Restoration the So-
ciety had to become respect-
able, and its first president
Was a peer, Viscount Brounc-
ker, a politician with some
knowledge of mathematics,
while two-thirds of its Fellows
were Classified by Lyons as non-
Scientific. This proportion con-
tinued up to 1840. "

It was hoped that the non-
scientific Fellows would pro-
vide the necessary money for
the schemes laid down for the
Society’s charactér, such as the
building in London of “one or
more college, or colleges of
whatsoever kind or quality for
the habitation, assembly and
meeting of the aforesaid Presi-_
dent, Council and Fellows of
the aforesaid Society.” In this
college they were to promote
“by the authority of experi-
ments the sciences of natural
things and of useful arts.”

King Charles If further com-
manded “all and singular the
Justices, Mayors, Aldermen,
Sheriffs, Bailifs, Constables,
andsother officers ministers and
Subjects . .. that they be from

_ time to time aiding and “assist-

ant to the aforesaid President,
Council, and Fellows of the
Royal Society.”

In fact the non-scientific Fel-

lows did not produce the expec-
ted money; the college, which
might have been the beginning
of London University, was nev-
er built.

With the industrial revolution
other branches of science pbe-
Game important, and with the
rise of the bourgeoisies it be-
came possible to make the So-
ciety once more what the In_
visible College had been, a

' selentifie society rather than a

social club including scientists.

There was a keen internal
struggle, and scientists like
Wollastony and Davy alternated
With a Duke and a Marquis in
the presidency.

The revolution was accomp-
lished by a “fraction” of scien-
tiffe Fellows called the Philo-
sophical Club, led by Sir Wm.
Grove, an electrician and law-
yer, who played a great part
in establishing the law of the

GOOD MORNING!
T SEE YOURE
FEELING QUITE
TTER NOW!

SHOOTING FARTY WAS BROKEN
UP BY GUERRILLAS LED BYA 4g
GAL NAMED MILA! HMMM---/

GOSH! I HAD
A STRANGE

YIPES! iv Ye
WASNTA &
DREAM! 2

et

conservation. of energy. The
number of Fellows reached its
maximum of 766 in 1847.

In 1848 the number elected
ber year was cut down to. 15,
and since that date the propor-
tion of non-scientific fellows
has been reduced. We still elect
a few millionaires and politici-
ans, but they rarely attend our
meetings. The total number of
Fellows is just over 450.

During the twentieth century.
the Society has been given very
large legacies, and now spends
about 30,000 pounds per year on
research in peace time. If it
had ten times this income it
could and would play a real
part in the planning of science
in this countrys

The Society is coming to an-
other critical period. BHighty
years ago every serious scien-
tists ultimately became a fel-
low. Now the Fellowship is a
coveted honor. The Society can-
not expand as it should because.
it has no space.

If the Society. is prepared to
insist that it shall have proper.
accommodation and finances,
and is willing to expand its
membership, perhaps by admit-
ting associates, it will once
more become truly representa_
tive of British science.

If it is too polite to do more
than point out its needs in re-
spectful language, it will doubt-
less continue to be an honor-
ific body. But its place as the
driving foree in. British science
will be taken by some larger,
more democratic, and more liy-
ely organization, such as the
Association of Scientific Worl
ers. :

The next few years will de-
cide. I am one of the Fellows
Who:hope that our society will
tise to the. occasion and insist
that it is given the opportunity
to play a major part in the ex-

pansion of science, which is
necessary if Britain is not
merely to recover from the

war, but to be the great and
happy country which it could
be if it used its resources in-
telligently. e
—THE WORKER.

ITS OKAY--
WE CAN

TALK WHILE
I STOW THE

VERY WELL! FIRST OFF- HERE
ARE YOUR SEAMANS PAPERS!
WE HAD TO MAKE SURE WHO
YOU WERE! NOW--HERE'S THE
SITUATION ON THIS ISLAND----
WE TEN FILIPINOS ARE THE
\ LAST OF THE NATIVES--AND ARE
ORGANIZED INTC A PRETTY
EFFICIE LITTLE ARMY---%
Wy 5 :

Be

UNLESS THE YANKS COME \
QUICKLY WE'LL BE WIPED
OuT--BUT UNTIL THEN
WE DO ALL WE CAN To
HARASS THE ENEMY !
WILE YOU FIGHT WitH
US, JOHNNIE JONESZ

OMIGOSH!
T DON'T
KNOW WHAT

us,

GOOD! YOU ARE A *

SEAMAN--SO YOu
WILL KNOW HOWTO £
FIGHT! 11M GLAD
YOWRE ONE OF