JAMES BRYANT CONANr Presidenf-elect of Harwrd University
EDITOR'S OUTLOOK ARVARD ELECTS A PRESIDENT. For the second time in its history of nearly three centuries Haward has elected a chemist to the oresidencv. Chemists with a weakness for vicarious pridc \ ~ i l iexperience a thrill of satisfaction that l k . lames B. Conant has been the rcci~ientof this honor. it has been amply demonstrated within the memory of all of us that almost any native-born, protestant Nordic who has survived to the prescribed age may become president of these United States. The presidency of Harvard, however, is still an office to be reaarded seriouslv. It does not fall to the lot of men ofumeaeer attainments or mediocre caoacities. - - - - ~ ~ ~ ~h$& is, nevertheless, a certain eiement of tragedy in all such translations. No administrator comes into being in this manner but that a scientist dies. The end may be quick and painless or lingering and involuntary, but it appears to be inevitable. Whether regret or rejoicing predominates in one's contemplation of the event depends largely upon whether or not one holds that the ~rospect - of omelets compensates for the breaking of eggs. In the present instance our regrets, if any, must be considerably mitigated by the confidence that the quality of the product will justify the raw-material exoenditure. A keen and alert intelligence and a mastery of the scientific method do not h v a y s guarantee administrative success. When, however, these qualities are combined, as in Dr. Conant, with an unusual capacity for inspiring respect and good will in others, and with a considerable breadth of outlook, we need scarcely fear that they will be ineffectually directed.
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lectual pessimists. The greater our knowledge and intelligence the greater will be the extent of our intellectual pessimism. It does not necessarily follow, however, that we need be emotional pessimists as well. Indeed intellectual pessimists are,-as often as not, far from being gloomy fellows. Your emotional pessimist may be also an intellectual ~essimistbut he is far more likelv to be a frustrated Ad ernhittered intellrtctllal optinLst. The intrlltctu:~llv o~tin~isticlad who rnemorircs and practices ali theLcopy-bookmaxims and who sincerely believes that wealth, honor, and happiness are the just rewards of industry, frugality, and docility is likely to develop a persecution complex and becomes a confirmed emotional pessimist when he finds that these rewards are withheld from him. Not so the hardboiled youth who clearly perceives that integrity, for instance, is in reality a rather choice luxury. If he elects to go in for it he is never surprised and seldom aggrieved if it develops that he must pay for his fancies. It is no shock to him that hobbies are more apt to require subsidy than to pay dividends. By all means let us have more intellectual pessimists.
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HICAGO MEETING. The eighty-sixth meeting of the American Chemical Society will take place in Chicago during the week of September tenth. Chief among the extra-meeting attractions will be the opportunity to visit the "Century of Progress" exposition. A brief review of the chemical exhibits on view there is presented in this number. Certainly no teacher who has arranged or expects to arrange a school chemistry exhibition will be content N PESSIMISM. Pessimism and its antonym to miss seeing them. While many of the exhibits are have been epigrammatically defined ad nauseam. more elaborate and expensive than a school could Perhaps that is why the term is, in reality, so prepare, numerous suggestions for demonstrations incompletely understood. Epigrams are generally and project experiments will be discovered by any one more successful in the distortion than in the diffusion with a little aptitude for cutting a coat to fit the cloth available - . ---- -.-. of truth. An elementarv distinction which even the dictionaries Remarkably low round-trip fares to Chicago, with overlook is t h i t between intellectual and emotional liberal stopover privileces, have been announced by all oessimism. Indeed. without ever clearly recomizina transportation igenciis. Accustomed as we have ihe distinction, most people tacitly a&me tgat th; become to bargain prices of all sorts, we have not latter is the natural and inevitable outgrowth and often encountered, nor shall we soon again be offered, accompaniment of the former. This assumption is so sound an investment for a week's time and traveling not justified. expenses. Moderate hotel rates are guaranteed. We are not all emotional pessimists, yet all of us (For details consult the News Edition of Indust&l are to a certain extent intellectual pessimists. That and Enaineerina Chemistry is to say, we all acknowledge certain unpleasant facts, for ~ a 10, y 1933.) but we do not all permit those facts to reduce us to The program for the Dimelancholia. We are aware, for instance, that death vision of Chemical Educais inevitable and that it is rather more likely than tion is now in preparation. not to be attended by distressing circumstances. Present indicationsarethat We are also aware that no person whose income is so the sessions of the Division small that he finds taxes a real burden can avoid will be a t least as interestpaying them. We are further aware that, once paid, ing and as meritorious as those a t Washington. A taxes will be, in the main, wasted; a small portion preliminary schedule will will be employed toward useful ends and another portion will be expended to the detriment and annoyappear in a later number ance of the taxpayer. To this extent we are all intelof the JOURNAL.
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