to-day hampered and curtailed in a manner undreamed of twenty years ago.
In fact, our whole scheme of government seems to be passing from the
representative form on which it was founded, to some new form as yet
undetermined. Whether all this is, in our opinion, for good or for evil,
is of no particular concern. The matter that concerns us is, that we
have left our old moorings, and that, to secure new ones, new limits are
to be set to the activities of men along lines which concern us, and
that, therefore, it is necessary that those who by education and
training are best fitted to consider facts and not desires, should guide
society as much as possible along its new lines. I consider that we as a
profession are particularly trained to do this by our consideration of
facts as they exist, and I think it will be recognized by all that we
are not in our work or activities bound by any precedent, even if we do
learn all that we can from the past; and that we are by nature and
training of a cool and calculating disposition, which is surely a thing
that is needed in this time of many suggested experiments.

To be effective, however, we must be cohesive, and thus be able to take
our part not as the led, but as leaders, convincing the people, if
possible, that all the ills of our social system cannot be cured by
remedies which neglect the forces of creation, and that the best doctors
for our troubles are not necessarily those whose sympathies are most
audibly expressed.

In the recent discoveries of science our ideas as to the forces of
Nature must be greatly enlarged and our theories amplified. Recent
discovery of radium and radio-active substances shows at least that much
of our old knowledge needs re-writing along the lines of our greater
knowledge of to-day.