194 CARNEGIK INSTITUTION 



sity will restrict these appointments to the few who have already 

 exhibited genins and productive power and established habits of 

 work in investigation. It will be particularly necessary to use cau- 

 tion in making appointments in aid of applicants without ample and 

 well established records. 



In pursuance of the policy of aiding those who help themselves 

 and of making the income of the Institution go as far as is in any 

 way practicable, as indicated in various ways b}^ the Founder, it 

 would evidently seem unwise to employ its income in the purchase 

 of property, other than that contemplated in Washington, in the 

 equipment of individual enterprises, or perhaps in any other way, 

 generally, than the distribution of that income in small sums which 

 may do most work by supplementing important efforts where a 

 little additional aid may make complete and perfect a great work. 

 Numerous opportunities will be found to secure comparatively 

 important returns at little cost, and the innumerable applications 

 for aid in all sorts of wise and foolish ways which come before the 

 committees give evidence that only by carefully and safely provid- 

 ing for the most important objects in view can serious waste of funds 

 be avoided. 



The relative importance of a department of research which di- 

 rectly promotes the progress of the race industrially is so obvious 

 and so enormous that 5'our committee feel justified in submitting 

 the proposition that the largest practicable support should be ex- 

 tended to all work bearing upon its extension and maintenance. 



The first step to be taken in systematically preparing the way for 

 the great work to be carried on by the Institution and insuring the 

 highest possible efficiency of the operation of the latter would seem 

 to be the systematic gathering of information relating to men, equip- 

 ment, and facilities already existing, ascertaining where a deficiency 

 exists, where ample provision is already made, what are the defi- 

 ciencies and how they may be best remedied, what is the best way 

 to make immediate and productive use of those which are in one or 

 more lines substantially complete and satisfactory. 



In this work it is to be presumed that the advisory committees may 

 effectively aid. Each in its special department may find the men, 

 discover the evidence of genius. By the issue of circulars of inquiry 

 it will be easily possible to ascertain substantially what apparatus 

 and facilities every institution of learning, every industrial enter- 

 prise, and every contemporary investigator has under control in the 

 field assigned; thus, as a supplementary result, learning just what 



