THE CENTRALIZATION OF THE CONGRESS 87 



an harmonious effect. The scholarly meetings alone failed even to aim 

 at harmony and unity. Not only did the congresses themselves stand 

 apart without any inner relation, grouped together by calendar dates 

 or by their alphabetical order from Anthropology to Zoology; but 

 in every congress, again, the papers read and the manuscripts pre- 

 sented were disconnected pieces without any programme or correla- 

 tion. Worse than that, they could not even be expected in their isolat- 

 edness to add anything which would not have been worked out and 

 communicated to the world just as well without any congress. The 

 speaker at such a meeting is asked to contribute anything he has at 

 hand, and he accepts the invitation because he has by chance a com- 

 pleted paper or a research ready for publication. In the best case it 

 would have appeared in the next number of the specialistic magazine, 

 in not unfrequent cases it has appeared already in the last number. 

 Such a congress is then only an accident and does not itself serve the 

 progress of knowledge. 



Even that would be acceptable if at least the best scholars would 

 come out with their latest investigations, or, still more delightful, if 

 they would enter into an important discussion. But experience has 

 too often shown that the conditions are most favorable for the oppo- 

 site outcome. The leading scholars stay away partly to give beginners 

 the chance to be heard, partly not to be grouped with those who 

 habitually have the floor at such gatherings. These are either the men 

 whose day has gone by or those whose day has not yet come; and 

 both groups tyrannize alike an unwilling audience. Yet it may be said 

 that in scientific meetings of specialists the reading of papers is non- 

 essential and no harm is done even if they do not contribute anything 

 to the status of scholarship; their great value lies in the personal con- 

 tact of fellow workers and in the discussions and informal exchange of 

 opinions. All that is true, and completely justifies the yearly meetings 

 of scholarly associations. But these advantages are much diminished 

 whenever such gatherings take on an international character, and 

 thus introduce the confusion of tongues. And hardly any one can 

 doubt that the turmoil of a world's fair is about the worst possible 

 background for such exchange of thought, which demands repose and 

 quietude. Yet even with the certainty of all these disadvantages the 

 city of Paris, with its large body of scholars, with its venerable schol- 

 arly traditions, and with its incomparable attractions, could overcome 

 every resistance, and its convenient location made it natural that in 

 vacation time, in an exposition summer, the scholars should gather 

 there, not on account of, but in spite of, the hundred congresses. 

 With this the city of St. Louis could make no claim to rivalry. Its 

 recent growth, its minimum of scholarly tradition, its great distance 

 from the did centres of knowledge even in the New World, the apathy 

 of the East and the climatic fears of Europe, all together made it clear 



