A CHALLENGE TO SCIENCE

Evening Star, Issue 22450, 22 September 1936, Page 9

A CHALLENGE TO SCIENCE

GALL FOR LOW-COST HOMES In a brilliant article in ‘ Architecture ’ (American), Grosvenor Atterbury chides science for its aloofness from certain human needs, particularly a comfortable home at moderate cost. “You can buy a first-class automobile to-day tor around 20 cents a pound, the price of ordinary lard,” the writer declares. “Twenty-five years ago you would have paid just about 10 times the price for a car incomparably inferior in every way. On _ the other hand, during the same period of time the price of a small house has about doubled—and it is probably not as well built to-day as it was 25 years ago. This comparison doesn’t seem to make sense. In fact, it indicates a serious economic and industrial dislocation. “ We will not go into details _as to whose fault it is. But if you think about it at all seriously you will, perhaps, ask what Science—with a capital “ S ” —the science of really great minds, has been doing in this crisis. And with Science we must include the philanthropists whose hundreds of millions have made the work of science possible. “ What really interests us most vitally to-day? 'is it the discovery that my umbrella, if projected through space at sufficient velocity, will actually become shorter, until, if Einstein’s theory is what it is cracked up to be, it will disappear altogether? Scarcely, I can lose umbrellas fast enough as it is; and the ownership of an umbrella is an academic question anyway. “Or are we practically concerned that Nova Centuris ‘ went bust ’ in the outer darkness 13 centuries ago? It doesn’t hold a candle to our little financial smash-up six years ago, from which we are still reeling. _ . * “ And now we are spending millions to build 200 in telescopes to scan the universe and determine whether it is getting measurably smaller or incalculably greater. “ All of which, in the present state of the real, seems brilliantly useless, especially when you consider the millions who cannot afford decent homes because none of our great minds have ever been focused on the basic everyday problem of human shelter. “ Science needs an intelligent board of directors. With a small amount of such brains as are now focused on the speed with which the neutron penetrates the nucleus of the atom, and only 2 or 3 per cent, of the money now devoted to research into the living conditions at the dawn of history, the cost of the poor roan’s housing to-day could bo cut in half.”