3,000 Alumni Fill Metropolitan Opera House to Hear Conant Open Associated Harvard Clubs Symposium

Four broad fields of modern civilization were covered in last night's symposium at the Metropolitan Opera House on "Our Expanding Horizons," attended by close to 3000 Crimson Alumni. Harlow Shapley, Paine Professor of Practical Astronomy and Directory of the Harvard Observatory, dealt with the world of science; Francis T. Spaulding '17, Dean-Elect of the Graduate School of Education, discussed the problem of our secondary schools; Wallace B. Donham '98, Dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration, described industrial conditions in America; and Bruce C. Hopper '18, associate professor of Government, gave a rapid survey of recent events in Europe. President Conant, who was introduced by Thomas W. Lamont '92, presided at the meeting.

Shapley Defends Science

Discussing our expanding horizons in science, Professor Shapley decried the view that science is the cause of the "present tragic world order". "It is philosophy and religion that have betrayed us, not the engineers, he said.

"Science has an important social job on the horizon, namely the intrusion of rationality and logical methodology into non-scientific fields," he continued, "I do not know how to intrude, successfully--perhaps by education, perhaps by example.

"If you do believe that the present tragic world order should be charged to physicists, chemists, and engineers, then I insist that you have not thought it through."

The charge that science has outrun itself and that it has brought more woe and pain and disorder than happiness, comfort, and order is almost exclusively made by vain people whose failure to understand the simplest techniques has produced an inferiority and a defense.

Use of Rays

Professor Shapley emphasized the importance of the use of rays and radiation in many fields of science, such as the studying through invisible glass of the heretofore invisible storms of hydrogen, iron, and calcium on the too-visible surface of the sun. He told how scientists apply their research to practical work, using their rays in clinics, biological laboratories, agricultural experiment stations, and testing bureaus for textiles, guns, and even fake paintings.

Reviewing the role of science in the defense of civil liberties, Professor Shapley mentioned the radio as "the acme of scientific advance."

"But, you may say, the radio helps the charlatan to reach his dupes and to control them. It should help still more in releasing people from their natural dupehood."

In conclusion he defined the two most important "arcs of the horizon" in modern science: first, the public explanation of the bearing of our past and current discoveries on the current problems of life and society; and second, the encouragement of the use of at least semiscientific methods in the treatment of confused human problems in the hope of eventual emancipation from the slavery of slogans."

Spaulding Asks School Reform

Dealing with the question of opportunity for high school students after graduation, Dean Spaulding recommended several radical reforms of the present educational system, in which "there is little direct connection between success in school and success in making a beginning outside of school."

"The average secondary school of today," he declared, "is . . . planned with a view to the educational needs of high-school pupils a generation ago." Recent investigations of typical American schools in New York and Maryland show conclusively that in the world of today the ability of a high school graduate is no longer an important factor in obtaining a job, that "economic circumstances, not pluck or ability, are the chief determiners of eventual success," he said.

Help Student Find Talents

Reorganization of secondary school education to fit it to modern needs must include, according to Dean Spaulding, an acceptance by the individual schools of their responsibility to help each student discover his special talents and help him make the most of them. As examples of schools where such an aim has already been established he cited vocational schools in New York and elsewhere, the Civilian Conservation Corps, Midwestern schools which encourage student investigations into community affairs, and others which make sure that a student leaving the school is prepared for a definite job, and which help him to get it.

Another reform which lies in the direction of the "expanding horizons" of public education is the employment of teachers who are broadly trained by practical contact with the world and who are thus equipped to teach subjects "far from respectable in terms of purely academic standards," Dean Spaulding said, asserting that many of the school teachers today have gone into the profession "in order to escape the pressure of supposedly more practical callings."

Public Sentiment Needed

Vital to the effecting of any of these much-needed improvements is "public recognition of the need for changes in the conventional school program," he stated; with such recognition, "if America as a nation really wants schools that will meet the educational needs of its young people, there is no good reason why it cannot have them."

Another problem which would come up is that of providing a groundwork for the necessary large-scale planning, "in terms of those phases of economics, of sociology, of public administration and public finance, which bear on education as a national undertaking."

Such planning, Dean Spaulding believes, goes beyond the scope of our present teachers' colleges and university schools of education, but as schools of education become loss isolated from other university departments, he said. the resources of the universities can be used more directly for solving educational problems and this opening new horizons for youth.

Donham Asks Cooperation

A solution to the most pressing problem of American industry today, according to Dean Donham's speech last night, lies in the direction of greater co-operation between government and business for the better application of science. "Science gives us our complex modern fools and is constantly reshaping our industry and society, he said, "but science neglects human emotions and thereby creates mere administrative problems than it solves."

"There is disturbing evidence that our capacity to produce new and potentially destructive instruments of power has outrun our capacity to control and direct them for constructive social ends." Dean Donham declared. "In 1989, industry spent some $215,000,000 on pure and applied science. The job was to find new products and processes and the result was to atimulate and accelerate social change