132 THE SCIENTIFIC PLAN OF THE CONGRESS 



scholarship of recent decades had been influenced by European ideals, 

 and the results were no longer ignored at the seats of learning through- 

 out the whole world. European scholars had here and there come as 

 visiting lecturers or as assimilated instructors, and a few American 

 scholars belonged to the leading European Academies. Yet, whoever 

 knew the real development of American post-graduate university life, 

 the rapid advance of genuine American scholarship, the incomparable 

 progress of the scientific institutions of the New World, of their libra- 

 ries and laboratories, museums and associations, was well aware that 

 Europe had hardly noticed and certainly not fully understood the 

 gigantic strides of the country which seemed a rival only on commer- 

 cial and industrial ground. Europe was satisfied with the traditional 

 ideas of America's scientific standing which reflected the situation of 

 thirty years ago, and did not understand that the changes of a few 

 lustres mean in the New World more than under the firmer traditions 

 of Europe. American scientific literature was still neglected; Ameri- 

 can universities treated in a condescending and patronizing spirit 

 and with hardly any awareness of the fundamental differences in the 

 institutions of the two sides. Those European scholars who crossed 

 the ocean did it with missionary, or perhaps with less unselfish, inten- 

 tions, and the Americans who attended European congresses were 

 mostly treated with the friendliness which the self-satisfied teacher 

 shows to a promising pupil. The time had really come when the con- 

 trast between the real situation and the traditional construction 

 became a danger for the scientific life of the time. Both sides had to 

 suffer from it. The Americans felt that their serious and important 

 achievements did not come to their fullest effectiveness through the 

 insistent neglect of those who by the tradition of centuries had 

 become the habitual guardians of scientific thought. A kind of feeling 

 of dependency as it usually develops in weak colonies too often 

 depressed the conscientious scholarship on American soil as the result 

 of this undue condescension. Yet the greater harm was to the other 

 side. Once before Europe had had the experience of surprise when 

 American successes presented themselves where nothing of that kind 

 was anticipated in the Old World. It was in the field of economic 

 life that Europe looked down patronizingly on America's industrial 

 efforts, and yet before she was fully aware how the change resulted, 

 suddenly the warning signal of the "American danger" was heard 

 everywhere. The surprise in the intellectual field will not be less. 

 The unpreparedness was certainly the same. Of course, there cannot 

 be any danger of rivalry in the scientific field, inasmuch as science 

 knows no competition but only cooperation. And yet it cannot be 

 without danger for European science if it willfully neglects and reck- 

 lessly ignores this eager working of the modern America. For both 

 sides a change in the situation was thus not only desirable, but neces- 



