KI)IT< >RIAL AXI) GENERAL 



217 



And further to the editor : 



"Do you wish me to question your 



sanity? Your sense of humor 



ought to suggest to you the dilemma in 

 which any such institution finds itself 

 in these days." 



And again in the same letter: 



Similarly, your sense of humor and 

 mental arithmetic ought to show you 

 that if we distributed our income pro 

 rata among applicants for it they 

 would receiv less than ten dollars 

 apiece. 



"What would you do under such cir- 

 cumstances if you were a Trustee and 

 if you knew you would be held respon- 

 sible for your acts? What would you 

 do if you had to listen to a hundred 

 times as much advice as you could pos- 

 sibly use on every project the minds of 

 men can conceiv? How would you 

 get on with your own affairs if you 

 had ten times as many applicants for 

 aid. positions, and shares in your in- 

 come as it could stand? Would not 

 vour sense of humor come to your 

 rescuer 



Once "crazy" and three times hu- 

 morous in one letter ! But we demand 

 Justice and Right, and atonement for 

 insult and pain, from a Twelve Million 

 Dollar Institution, to this great, good 

 and beloved man — Luther Burbank. 



But to answer the question of Presi- 

 dent Woodward of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution, "What would you do if," etc. 



If I were you, President Woodward, 

 backed by twelve million dollars "to 

 encourage .... the application of 

 knowledge to the improvement of man- 

 kind," I would do that, and not bring 

 instead insult, distraction and sorrow 

 to an efficient and faithful man who 

 never sought your aid. Mr. Burbank 

 was never one of your "many appli- 

 cants," and what you say on that phase 

 of your Institution is far from the mat- 

 ter under consideration. 



Xow that you have requested my 

 advice, I gladly give it. Go on with 

 what you started to do, at least so far 

 as not to bring sorrow, insult and in- 

 justice to Mr. Burbank. 



S^ 



Characterization of Luther Burbank. 



BY PRESIDENT DAVID STARR JORDAN, LE~ 

 I.AXI) STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, 

 CALIFORNIA. 



Luther Burbank is a modest, quiet, 

 devoted worker in science, with a keen 

 eye, a deft hand, a broad intelligence 

 and a sensitive soul. He has taken up 

 as his life-work the modification of plant 

 life by the processes of crossing and 

 selection. He has devoted himself 

 whole-souled to this work, and with an 

 industry amazing and almost without 

 parallel. 

 ******* 



Mr. Burbank has no patent on his 

 methods. They are as open as the day. 

 Thousands have used them before, as 

 thousands will use them later. But not 

 one in a hundred thousand has or will 

 use them with like intelligence, deftness 

 and skill. 



5JC 5)C ?fC J$v >fi Jj- ^t* 



Burbank's ways are Xature's ways, 

 for Burbank differs from other men in 

 this, that his whole life is given to the 

 study of how Nature does things. His 

 greatest service to science is to show 

 what can be achieved through deeper 

 knowledge of things as they are. He has 

 shown the infinite variety of Nature as 

 exhibited in the varying life and ways 

 of the millions of kinds of living things. 

 He has shown the unity of Nature in 

 again demonstrating the final essential 

 simplicity of creative processes. He has 

 put into practical utility the teachings of 

 his greatest master, Darwin, and he has 

 enriched the world with thousands oi 

 fruits and flowers, useful and delightful, 

 which but for him would have existed 

 only among the conceivable possibilities 

 of creation. He works in his own way 

 with the tools he needs and the methods 

 he can use. He has helped mankind by 

 increasing enormously the economic 

 values of plant life. He has helped even 

 more our science and our philosophy by 

 his practical and successful test of bio- 

 logic theories. Among the men of sci- 

 ence of century that is, Burbank is 

 assured of a high and honored place, not 

 as a "wizard" or as a clever operator, 

 but as a man of broad views, exact 

 knowledge, and noble and ennobling 

 character. 



