INTEREST IN RELIGION TODAY REAL--FOSDICK

"The world's population is being doubled every sixty years. We have checked immigration, but that is insufficient. Scientific control of birth is the only solution for the problem" declared the Reverend Harry Emerson Fosdick in an interview yesterday.

"Everywhere, except in the moral realm, people know that they cannot successfully let themselves go or do as they please." The idea that it is the law of life to let an instinct like the sex instinct go was scoffed at by Mr. Fosdick. "Take the instinct of pugnacity," he said, "which is very deep in us. Well go out from this house now, get nearly run over by a car loose your temper, beat up the driver, batter in his head. How will you explain yourself to the judge tomorrow morning? Will you say, 'Your Honor, I am a believer in the new psychology'."

Asked whether he thought that college men of today take less Interest in religion than they did 20 years ago, Dr. Fosdick answered that even if men went to chapel less often than they did in his day, religious problems were being discussed on the campus with much more interest at present. "I have inquired frequently what subjects are usually discussed in what we used to call bull sessions among students. The answer was generally 'sex and religion.' I am convinced that a man's real conception of and attitude towards his position in the universe, his religion, and other fundamental matters are of more solid interest to the college student of today than they were 20 years ago. People used to be more formal but thy seldom had a real interest in moral and intellectual matters. In time the tide will turn again and religious organizations will develop rapidly."

Dr. Fosdick continued, by explaining why church-going had decreased in the last two decades. "There are two reasons. The first is that the churches lagged behind times. They had not honestly faced the problems of the day and were not living with their generation. The second is the tendency towards intense individualism. You men don't want to be regimented you're not joiners. But both tenancies are temporary, I am not in the least bit worried about them."