LABORATORY ENDOWMENT. 735 



by the laboratory, with the understanding that, in return for favors" 

 received, they should contribute a certain amount of labor toward the 

 main purposes of the institution. Such volunteers, if I may call them 

 so, could give, say, one-third of their time to this general work, and 

 have the remaining two-thirds for their own investigations. Thus the 

 laboratory might often aid young men of promise and ability, and 

 derive real benefit from them in return. This power of encouraging 

 and directing the beginner in research would not be least among the 

 merits of the institution. For want of just such encouragement many 

 and many a young enthusiast is driven out of scientific work into some 

 field of labor less congenial and often less important. How much the 

 world has lost in this way, how much science has been retarded, no 

 one can ever estimate. 



But how much money is needed for all this ? That depends partly 

 upon locality, partly upon other circumstances. In a place* where 

 building is cheap, real estate low, and living inexpensive, a moderate 

 endowment would go much farther than in a eity like Boston or New 

 York. Under the most favorable conditions perhaps half a million 

 dollars would suffice. Such a sum is by no means extravagant. 

 Single individuals have given us much and sometimes a great deal 

 more toward the establishment of a college, school, art-gallery, ob- 

 servatory, library, or hospital. Why not, then, half a million for a 

 laboratory, three-tenths or less to go for building and equipment, 

 and the remainder for permanently endowing the institution? Even 

 a million would not be too much by any means. There are in our 

 country a good many men able to give as much as this, whose fortunes 

 have been made from applications of science to the arts. Here, then, 

 is a chance for them to reciprocate a little, and at the same time to 

 cover themselves with at least posthumous glory. Or, the expense 

 might be borne by Government. A hundred and fifty thousand dol- 

 lars down for building and outfit, with twenty-five or thirty thousand 

 dollars annually for sustenance, would do very well. If it is right 

 for Congress to equip transit expeditions in the interest of astronomy, 

 it would certainly be right thus to assist the two sciences to which 

 our greater industries are so deeply indebted. In fact, the United 

 States can better afford to incur this very moderate expense than not 

 to incur it. In the long-run the laboratory would be worth as much 

 to the country as either the Naval Observatory, the Coast Survey, or 

 the geological expeditions all, by-the-way, excellent enterprises, 

 which have received, if anything, less encouragement than they have 

 deserved. The development of science in a nation means eventually 

 the discovery of new resources and the creation of new wealth. Who- 

 ever doubts this statement needs only to look at the past achievements 

 of physical science in order to be fully convinced of its truth. What 

 national investment ever brought in richer returns than that famous 

 grant made by Congress to S. F. B. Morse ? 



