burgess: science and after- war period 69 



revival of the more concerted efforts for the use of an auxiliary 

 international language such as Esperanto, or, if you will, some 

 standardized international form of expression in science. 



If I have dwelt with less emphasis on some of the recent, 

 strictly American tendencies of scientific development, I trust 

 it fair to assume you are acquainted with most of them. The 

 great work of the National Research Council is certainly familiar 

 to us all and it is good news to hear that plans are being developed 

 toward reorganizing the Council to meet the conditions of the 

 reconstruction period. There is great need in the United States, 

 with our relative geographical isolation and great distances 

 between many scientific centers, for an active scientific body 

 devoted to the initiation, stimulation, and correlation of scientific 

 research. 



Furthermore, by emphasizing the recent British developments 

 in the relations of state, industry, and science, I by no means 

 desire to imply that we have not been active in America. These 

 matters are being freely discussed here and many plans are being 

 formulated, and some are in operation, for cooperative research 

 in various branches of science particularly as applied to industry. 

 The weekly and monthly scientific press are full of them. It 

 is to be noted that in contrast with the British experience, in 

 America less expectation is being placed on governmental aid 

 to new research projects; an exception to this is, of course, the 

 Smith-Howard bill now before Congress for promoting engineering 

 research in the several states. 



CONCLUSIONS 



In America, individual initiative in the past has on the whole 

 been more potent than the state in providing the funds for main- 

 taining research. In the prosecution of the war now drawing 

 to a close, however, the Federal Government has spent huge 

 sums on projects requiring scientific investigation and develop- 

 ment, and, in order to carry out the scientific projects of military 

 urgency, has mobiHzed the scientific men of the country. Is it 

 well during the after-war period to demobilize completely this 

 army of scientific men? No one would yet think of having 





