Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
tion of science, discussing it with scientists around the United States.
Within a year, they were actively designing what would eventually be
called 'Science Service'.
A paramount consideration in these discussions was whose interests
the organization should serve - science or society? Scripps and Ritter
took a liberal democratic approach that differed from the patrician, elitist
attitudes of most senior scientists. Scripps saw that science had extraor-
dinary power to affect modern life and therefore citizens deserved better
information about it. As his son Robert P. Scripps later explained, the
millionaire knew that “for the masses as well as the classes, knowledge is
power” (Scripps 1932, p. 156). The elder Scripps had, after all, made his
fortune by delivering news and entertainment to those very masses. First
consideration in the new group's decision-making should be given, he
believed, to the potential audience's practical needs and interests rather
than the scientific establishment's agendas.
To implement this approach, Science Service was incorporated inde-
pendent from any single scientific organization or discipline. To gain re-
spect from skeptical newspaper editors, Scripps argued, the organization
must be perceived as an objective and reliable presenter of facts. It
should not be a publicity machine for science or engage in advocacy or
'propaganda'.
5
It should “tell the millions outside the laboratories and the
lecture halls what was going on inside” (Scripps 1932, p. 156) and do so
accurately. Both Scripps and Ritter were convinced that mediocre pres-
entation fed public 'indifference' to science. The new organization's pro-
ducts must be readable, accessible, and interesting as well as accurate
and timely. Ritter reinforced this message when he wrote to Scripps in
1921: “Unquestionably there are aspects of science that appeal strongly
to popular interest; there is much that is curiosity-satisfying, much that is
practically useful, much that is dramatic; and were Science Service to
'play up' these aspects to the extent that it might, [then] it could soon
reach a self-supporting basis, and could go on and largely increase its
funds.”
6
Ritter served as first president of the board of trustees and re-
5
'Document A - The American Society for the Dissemination of Science', dictated by
E.W. Scripps on March 5, 1919; SIA RU7091, Box 1, Folder 1.
6
Carbon copy of William E. Ritter to E.W. Scripps, May 13, 1921, mailed to E.E.
Slosson; SIA RU7091, Box 1, Folder 3.
