RELATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH TO ECONOMIC PROBLEMS. 53 



tants of a lake or a river, and almost depopulate the waters of a coast. This may be 

 done without the knowledge of the public, and indeed before the fishermen themselves 

 recognize the consequence of their own improvidence. 



The only parallel to this is in the destruction of the forests, in which individual 

 owners may cause national disaster. The lumberman, however, is checked in his 

 work of destruction to a greater degree than the fisherman, for his operations, being 

 visible to all, are more subject to control by public opinion. 



It appears, then, that one of the most potent of all motives — self-interest — affects 

 two classes of industries in directions which are diametrically opposite. For agricul- 

 ture and the mines it is conservative, while for the fisheries it is essentially destructive. 



The secondary or elaborative industries — those by which the products of the pri- 

 mary industries are elaborated to supply the manifold necessities of modern civiliza- 

 tion — have also need of scientific direction and the application of the most improved 

 methods known in chemistry, physics, and mechanics. 



Through the agency of the arts and handicrafts man is supplied with clothing, 

 shelter, amusement, and intellectual occupation, and the great system of accessories 

 and refinements with which these are associated in civilized life. In the conduct of 

 the secondary industries, however, private interest is sufficiently potent to force the 

 men in control to utilize the latest results of scientific discovery, and is strictly con- 

 servative. 



The importance of securing the aid of science for the solution of economic prob- 

 lems has for the last fifty years been very generally recognized in this country. No 

 better proof can be found than the liberality with which the Congress of the United 

 States, in such matters usually the embodiment of the will of the thoughtful majority, 

 has provided for scientific aid for all the great industries. 



In these days of progressi ve democracy, governments are working more and 

 more for the benefit of the people at large. The founders of our Eepublic never 

 ceased to insist that the safety of a free government must depend upon the enlighten- 

 ment and intelligence of its citizens. They understood, also, that its industrial and 

 economic welfare requires the application of enlightened knowledge to the administra- 

 tion of every industry. The whole public record of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, 

 and their associates bears witness to this. 



The mediation of government seems, in a Eepublic like ours at least, to be essen- 

 tial in order to secure, for the benefit of the people at large, the immediate advantages 

 of the results of new scientific discoveries, which would otherwise be appropriated, 

 for the most part, for the personal profit of limited classes. 



It is manifest that all cannot be left to the universities and colleges. Their self- 

 imposed and evidently proper limitations forbid. Indeed there are many wise men 

 who maintain that these limitations should be increased. These insist that the sole 

 duty of a university should be to teach universal knowiedge. The increase of knowl- 

 edge is, in their opinion, the proper function of an academy of sciences. 



Now, academies of sciences exactly corresponding to those of the Old World 

 do not exist on this twin continent of Republics. Such academies remind one of the 

 lordly salmon, of which it was once said that it could only survive in rivers which 

 were under the shadow of a throne. This was before the days of public fish culture. 

 Academies are associated with forms of society in which aristocratic ideals prevail. 

 Membership is limited, and is a mark of personal distinction. Successful discoveries 

 are rewarded by decorations and titles of honor, by governmental subsidy, even more 



