492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



work. Then we have to bear in mind that this nation is peculiarly- 

 given to extravagance. This is due largely to the optimism of the 

 American people, a quality on which so much of America's success 

 depends. But it has its drawbacks, like other good things, and the 

 spirit of extravagance may yet drive us upon the rocks. We must not 

 forget that conditions are rapidly changing and that what might suffice 

 for a past generation will not do to-day. A generation ago we could 

 speak of our natural resources as practically unlimited, now we begin 

 to see their end — at least in some directions. And apart from this we 

 must recognize that under any circumstances waste is a sin and that 

 the record of progress is largely the record of the elimination of waste. 

 We shall have to make up for the diminution of our natural resources 

 by new applications of science which will make ten blades of grass 

 grow where one grew before, and by new inventions which will save 

 fifty per cent, or more of the waste in most of our industrial processes. 

 However, even without any new inventions we could easily make enor- 

 mous savings by the proper use of existing knowledge. Let me give 

 you a single example. A few years ago a graduate of the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, trained in the department of biology, was 

 appointed to an administrative post in one of the great cities. He 

 invented nothing new, but merely joined common sense and executive 

 ability to the scientific knowledge that his training at " Tech " had 

 given him. Before long he had given the city a much better service 

 than it had ever had before, and at the same time had saved it more 

 than a million dollars each year. Suppose you multiply the million 

 dollars thus saved by even a very small fraction of the thousands of 

 men trained each year in the scientific institutions of this country and 

 you may form some estimate of the saving grace of such institutions 

 and of their value to the community. 



I think, then, that there can be no question that you would have to 

 put in a very large factor of usefulness, if you were estimating the 

 value of such an educational institution as we are considering to-day — 

 at least if you realize in any adequate degree the importance of scien- 

 tific knowledge in public and private life. And, of course, a not unim- 

 portant element in such scientific knowledge would be a knowledge of 

 physics, and under ideal circumstances this knowlege might be at least 

 partially tested by Mr. Cooke's method, to which reference has already 

 been made. It would, however, at best be only a partial test of knowl- 

 edge, and it would neglect a great many factors of the first importance. 

 May I remind you that knowledge is very far from being everything 

 and that much of our educational work to-day and in the future must 

 be to deliberately smash up the idol of knowledge. We are peculiarly 

 prone to this form of idolatry in a scientific school, for science rightly 

 lays a great stress on facts and their accurate apprehension. We are 



