94 JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES VOL. 11, NO. 4 



(2) has the first claim on the material presented before that society. 

 In my opinion, the Journal now publishes a higher grade of material, 

 but the Engineering has been steadily improving. The Journal has 

 the larger circulation by about one fifth. Each claims that it has a 

 circulation more profitable to the advertiser than the circulation of 

 its competitor, but on these claims I am not competent to give any 

 opinion. 



There is evidently staged here a contest of the social versus the 

 profitable which I, for one, will observe with interest during the 

 coming decade. Meanwhile, without seeking to condemn or approve 

 either side, I believe we shall do well to keep these facts in mind when 

 considering contributing articles to these journals or others similarly 

 situated. 



The progress of experiments such as I have described may not 

 improbably result in scientific societies finding it to their advantage 

 to have all their publishing done for profit, just as they now have 

 their printing and binding done for profit. Why not turn the whole 

 conduct of their publications over to an organization which makes 

 a business of editing, managing and circulating periodicals, subject 

 of course to some original control by each society as to the general 

 nature of the papers to be published ?^^ 



One benefit which would result would be the saving of time and 

 energy of investigators now spent on routine editing and publishing. 

 The amount of good research which has been prevented by scientific 

 periodicals would probably be appalling if we could sum it up. An- 

 other benefit would be the suppression of a great deal of data now 

 being published simply because space happens to be available but 

 for which there is not and never will be any demand. On the other 

 hand, the work of a Willard Gibbs might also be suppressed. -'' 



Another point regarding advertising. We all recognize that 

 the consumer pays for it, yet he has little if any control over what 

 he has paid for. The inanufacturer tells him what the manufacturer 

 would like to have him know, and no more. Why should not the 

 consumer have his advertising page, in which to tell the manufac- 



^- An experiment of this kind is about to be tried by the Chemical Society with its two 

 series of Scientific and Technologic Monographs, by contract with the Chemical Catalog 

 Company of New York. 



^^ On second thought I find I have selected a bad example. If the Transactions of 

 the Connecticut Academy had not been available, Gibbs' work might have been offered 

 and published where it would have really circulated, and the English-speaking world 

 would not have had to wait for it to be translated into German before it could become 

 known. 



I 



