® SCIENCE FEATURE ~.-

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New theories on genetics

OR months, Soviet theories on genetics,
as expounded by Trofim Lysenko, presi-
All-Union Academy of
Agricultural Sciences, have been under attack
by scientific and othe publications in Canada,
the U.S. and Britain, which profess to be out-

dent of the Lenin

raged by Soviet scientists’
theories long accepted in the

(Earlier this year, Dean

Son, president of the Royal Society of Can-

_ ada, in the course of an addr

ver, charged that the Soviet Union had reviy-

ed “the old hypothesis of

acquired characters are inherited” to serve
“high purposes of state,” and that Soviet
Scientists who refused ‘to accept it had “dis-

appeared froth the scene.”)

More recently, Henry R.-Luce’s Time

Magazine, which cuts all its.

Condensed from an
article by
GENNADI FISH

ESPITE attacks from tradi-

tionalists in the field of biol-
ogy, Soviet science has proved
that nature can be modified for
the benefit of mankind and
Society,

Fruit trees are bearing in Si-
beria where they were unknown.
20 yéars ago; orchards, on a. com-
mercial scale, bloom within the

a Arctic Circle in European Russia,

Collective farmers, faced with
Waving oceans of simultaneously

iety that ripens five days earlier
than old types—and thus eases
their labor by making it possible
to stagger the dates of harvest.

An early ripening potato gives
farmers of the Soviet north a
hew crop, while those farther
South are rewarded with two
crops where one grew before.
(One new variety of potato, the
Snowflake, has been successfuly |
acclimatized in the Arctic).

_ These are only a few of the
Successes won by Soviet experts
Working in the field of agrobio-
logical science as first advanced
by Ivan Michurin, one of the

8reatest biologists of modern
times, :

| order to attain these suc-
 Cesses, Soviet biologists had to
discard the old “idealist” science
°f Weismann, Mendel and Mor--
8an. These men held that varia-—

tions in organisms from condi- :
ist Republic, In their yield, frost

tions of life are not inherited;
that there is a hereditary sub-
_ Stance, which is immortal and
‘Rot subject to change:

4 ita traditional theory has
tach exposed and dialectical ma-
_ ‘erialism has won again over
esete ph vaio: Vi sete Gee cS
i Yr
oo the recent session of the
‘ nin All-Union Academy of Ag-
‘teultural Sciences in Moscow, at~

tended by 700 scientific workers, —

a8 nial address was delivered
_ 2Y Tofim Lysenko, academy presi-
oa Lyse a ¢ ie ah

yeveenko and other followers of
yichurin have given the Soviet
nion the idea of yarovization

Vernalization) of seeds, which

discarding of
West.

W. P. Thomp-
ess in Vancou-|the party line
Lamarck, that

servation and

This article

news to fit its

adds millions of tons of exain’ to
the harvest yearly.

In the southern sections of the
~ Soviet Union, the potato was de-
generating, and potatoes had to

be imported. In Odessa, for in-

stance, potatoes cost more than ‘

§rapes. Dozens of explanations
were offered by scientists, but
none could improve the situa-

_ tion.

Then,Lysenko, on the basis of
the theory of the development of
plants by stages, suggested sum-
mer planting of the potatoes. This
solved the »potato problem in the
south, while the Morganists and
Mendelists went on writing books
to prove it was not possible of

meee ee;
Eichfeld tdld the
session that during and ‘since
the war, the All-Union Institute
of Plant Breeding has “produced
about 170 straims of various cul-
tivated plants. Discoveries have

been made opening up opportuni- |

ties for farming north of the
Arctic Circle and in desert zones.
At Khibiny, we have. produced a
strain of early ripening potatoes

which farther south gives two —

harvests a year.”

Winter wheat in Siberia was a
problem of national economic im-
portance discussed by the 1947
plenum of the central committee
of the Communist Party of the

Soviet Union, Lysenko ‘solved the

‘ age-old riddle. There is no strain

of winter wheat ‘which cannot

now winter in Siberia.

In horticulture too, the Michur-
in method is meeting with great
success. At present some 208 new

varieties of fruits and berries
cultivated by Michurin and his |

pupils have been introduced into
agricultural production in the
Russian Soviet Federative Social-

yesistance and taste, these con-
siderably excel many old Russian

and foreign varieties

In the Far East, the Urals, Si-
peria and the northern districts
“of the European part of the
USSR, where formerly there were

no orchards at all, save single

‘trees grown by individual ama-
teurs, there are some 50,000 acres
‘of orchards in collective and state
farms and in the private gardens
of collective farmers, factory and
‘office workers. Orchards and

perry patches are now being laid —

out even in the Far North, be-
yond ‘the Arctie Circle. nee
* “The Altai Territory is becom-

ing a region of gardens. In the*
city of Gorno-Altaisk, where no

anti-communist obsession, noted
that Prof. J. B. S. Haldane, famous British
scientist; would be lecturing on genetics in
Prague this winter.

now on, Sovie
eee

-Michurin, the —

less and never: renewed, .

‘state farms.” a
This pupae aan the Soviet

we
with glee

“Western scientists are outraged by this_
Soviet attack upon scientific principle,” as-
serted Time. “It reminds them of galileo, who
was ‘disciplined’ for asserting that the earth
moves around the sun. They do not see how
Haldane, who has enjoyed wide respect as a
biologist and geneticist, can continue to toe

and remain a scientist.”

Elsewhere Time declared that “scientists
assume that they have the right to judge
the truth on the basis of experiment, ob-.

reasoning. They regard any

dogmatic authority as a deadly enemy.”

shows how Soviet scientists,

“on the basis of experiment, observation and
. )
reasoning,” have come to challenge accepted

theories and arrive at new conclusions.

fruit trees were grown previous-
ly, factory and office workers
have 2,000 gardens in which Mi-
churin varieties and new varie-

“ties propagated by Siberian select-

ors are growing, Michurin apple
and cherry trees, bearing large
iruit, ave successfully grown in
siperia in the so-called “trailing”
form,

Professor Nikolai Nuzhdin, «as-
sistant director of the Institute of
Genetics, of the Academy of Sci-
ences of the USSR, wrote of the
Lysenko report that it “expresses
the new, advanced materialist and
progressive trend in the develop-

; path of the So-
viet, creative Darwinism.
trend reflects the highest stage
of development of materialist bio-
logy.” l oie

Nuzhdin commented that the
teachings of the Weismann-Men-
del-Morgan school proceed from
the allegation’ “that two large

_categories of living matter exist:

the ‘hereditary substance’ (idio-
plasm) and the ‘nutritive sub-
stance’ or trophoplasm (soma).
The hereditary substance, ac-
cording to Weismann, is death-
: . The
entire conception of the Mendel-
Morgan school leads to teachings
on the incomprehensibility of the
causes of variations in organisms,

to a denial of the possibility of
controlling this variation and ob- —

taining, in planned fashion, the

forms of animals and plants ne- —

essary tO: mane: F5 k

- Michurin’s teachings, continued —

by Lysenko, refute the theory that
heredity does not depend on en-
vironment, and as Nuzhdin wrote

. recently, “the victory of the col-
lective system of ffarming has |

created all the conditions for the

development of advanced Michur-_
in teachings.” :

As Michurin was about to hand

over his work to others, he wrote: |

“I see that the collective farm

system by means of which the
Communist Party is beginning to

carry out the great work of re-

newing the earth, will lead the
working people to true power over _
the forces of nature. A great future
_ for the whole of our natural sci-

ence lies in the

: collective and

people cherish with such care the
great legacy left by Michurin, dis-

daining the slander against hini
uttered by avid reactionaries in-
Europe and North America,

This

-a Communist you would certainly do something to
indicate you were not.

-Hornsnagle, “and that, er — tail — isn’t it somewhat |

kindly loaned it his handkerchief.

creature. “It was discovered that many of our mem-

were highly praised in the newspapers as reasonable

in being non-Communistic. Some of them began to

The tail piece was thought up by William Green.”

So ne?

This sparkling satire written by the late Mike
Quin some years ago is even more pertinent
today. an.

RRIVING back in’ America after an absence of 15

years or more, Dr..Emery Hornsnagle was surprised
by a strange creature approaching him along the road.
At first he took it to be a weird animal or land bird”
of the emu or cassowary variety. It waddled clumsily
on four legs and had a large plume-like tail protruding — a
from the rear. : Ware

As it ‘drew nearer, he perceived it to be a man ue
crawling on his hands and knees. His hair had been
shaved off and his head was painted blue. His body
was encircled by red stripes. What looked like a tail —
was a long stick decorated with streamers of colored oe
paper and bearing a placard: I LOVE CAPITALISM. a

As, the man crawled, he muttered over and over: fe
“I am not a Communist. I am not a Communist. I
am not a Communist.”

“Then what are you?” asked Dr. Hornsnagle.

The creature took one look at Hornsnagle, then
turned around and began to crawl away as rapidly as
its hands and knees could carry‘ it. \

Hornsnagle quickly lassoed it by one leg and tied :
it to a tree. “Now there is no reason for you to be |~ |
frightened,” he said. “I am not going to hurt you. —
As a scientist I would like to know what you are.”

“Let me go,” begged the creature. “Ii I am seen
talking to you I will get in trouble.”

“Why should you get into trouble for talking to.
me?” asked. Hornsnagle. cn
whined the

“Because you are a Communist,”
creature. : : : AAS
“Nonsense,” said Hornsnagle. “What makes you | ~
that ?”

think

.is_nothing ”

jgSaid the creature, “there

bout ye cate you are not. If

As for myself, you can see _
at a glance I am no Communist.” te ee
“Just what is a Communist?” asked Hornsnagle.
“T don’t: know,” replied the creature, “but you~
certainly could not accuse me of being one.” oes
“But crawling on your hands and knees,”

inconvenient?” } fee
The creature broke into tears, and Dr. Hornsnagle

_ “I used to walk erect,” it said, “and speak my mind
freely. It all started when they brought that resolu-
tion into the union.” aes ae
“What resolution?” asked Hornsnagle. ee ee
“The resolution against communism,’ said the | |
bers had Communistic books and literature in their | _
homes.” - ee 47 ee & a
“So what did you do?” asked Hornsnagle. ee
_ “We expelled them,” said the creature, “and the |
rest of us burned our libraries to make absolutely °
sure.” cae ee
“Did that convince them?” asked Hornsnagle.
“No. They said our officials were Communistic.
So we expelled them too and elected new ones who

and patriotic.”
“What happened then?” asked Hornsnagle.
_ “Then we stopped holding meetings,” said the crea-
ture. “There was nothing to meet about anyhow. It
was impossible to make any demands or conduct any
business withott being called Communistic. Later we _
pee the union altogether.” : age
“Didn't that convince them?” asked Hornsnagle.
The creature shook its head sadly. “No aE
Employers made a rule to employ only the most non-
Communist workers who would work for the
lowest wages. Everybody began to outdo each other

crawl and pretty soon no one could -

¢ : et a job at all
if he didn’t crawl. Then one thing esiicenaendther,

“Why don’t you stand up and them to a)
“That would be impossible,” said the creature.
“And why so?” asked Hornsnagle
“Because,” said the creature, “that would be Com

munistic.” ers Oo Ce ae oe

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 8, 1948—PAGE

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