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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



on a sound commercial basis. It is 

 said that one chemical firm employs 

 three hundred doctors of philosophy to 

 carry on scientific investigations. Re- 

 search has hitherto been forwarded 

 mainly by the universities, where again 

 Germany has led the way. The pro- 

 fessorship is given as a reward for suc- 

 cessful investigations, and the holder 

 of a chair is expected to devote himself 

 to investigation as well as to teaching. 

 There is a tendency to permit certain 

 professors to engage almost exclusively 

 in research. Thus the astronomical ob- 

 servatories of Harvard, Chicago and 

 California universities are purely re- 

 search institutions. A further step 

 has been taken in the endowment of 

 institutions, such as the Carnegie In- 

 stitution and the Rockefeller Institute, 

 explicitly for research. The most log- 

 ical and important advance, however, 

 consists in the direct conduct of re- 

 search by the government. As the 

 government should control monopolies, 

 so it should conduct the work which is 

 not for the benefit of a single indi- 

 vidual, but for the people as a whole. 

 There are of course no end of diffi- 



culties in the control of monopolies or 

 the conduct of research by a munici- 

 pality, state or nation; but it is ex- 

 actly these difficulties that it is our 

 business to overcome. And we may 

 congratulate ourselves that our na- 

 tional government is at present accom- 

 plishing more for research and the 

 applications of science than the govern- 

 ment of any other nation. 



THE WORK OF THE CARNEGIE 

 INSTITUTION 



The most important private founda- 

 tion for the promotion of research is 

 the Carnegie Institution of Washing- 

 ton, established four years ago by Mr. 

 Andrew Carnegie with an endowment 

 yielding an annual income of $500,000. 

 The fourth year book, which has been 

 recently issued, is of special interest 

 as it is the first under the presidency 

 of Dr. R. S. Woodward. The work of 

 the year indeed was mainly fixed before 

 the president entered on his office, but 

 in his report to the trustees he gives 

 some indications of the policy that 

 he will recommend. He favors large 

 projects carried on under the auspices 



South End ok Snow Telescope House, Soi.ar Observatory, [.Mount Wilson. 



