SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN AMERICA 



location of its arable land, and who in other ways precede the settlers 

 and prepare for their occupation of the new country. 



The work of the pure scientists is conducted without any utilitarian 

 motive, for, as Huxley says, "that which stirs their pulses is the love of 

 knowledge and the joy of discovery of the causes of things sung by the 

 old poet — the supreme delight of extending the realm of law and order 

 ever farther towards the unattainable goals of the infinitely great and the 

 infinitely small, between which our little race of life is run." While a 

 single discovery in pure science when considered with reference to any 

 particular branch of industry may not appear to be of appreciable ben- 

 efit, yet when interpreted by the industrial scientist, with whom I class 

 the engineer and the industrial chemist, and when adapted to practical 

 uses by them, the contributions of pure science as a whole become of 

 incalculable value to all the industries. 



I do not say this because a new incentive is necessary for the pure 

 scientist, for in him there must be some of the divine spark and for him 

 there is no higher motive than the search for the truth itself. But surely 

 this motive must be intensified by the knowledge that when the search 

 is rewarded there is sure to be found, sooner or later, in the truth which 

 has been discovered, the seeds of future great inventions which will in- 

 crease the comfort and convenience and alleviate the sufferings of mankind. 



By all who study the subject, it will be found that while the dis- 

 coveries of the pure scientist are of the greatest importance to the higher 

 interests of mankind, their practical benefits, though certain, are usually 

 indirect, intangible or remote. Pure scientific research unlike industrial 

 scientific research can not support itself by direct pecuniary returns from 

 its discoveries. 



The practical benefits which may be immediately and directly 

 traced to industrial research, when it is properly conducted, are so great 

 that when their importance is more generally recognized industrial re- 

 search will not lack the most generous encouragement and support. In- 

 deed, unless industrial research abundantly supports itself it will have 

 failed of its purpose. 



But who is to support the researches of the pure scientist, and who 

 is to furnish him with encouragement and assistance to pursue his self- 

 sacrificing and arduous quest for that truth which is certain as time goes 

 on to bring in its train so many blessings to mankind? Who is to furnish 

 the laboratories, the funds for apparatus and for traveling and for for- 

 eign study? 



Because of the extraordinary practical results which have been at- 

 tained by scientifically trained men working in the industrial laborato- 

 ries and because of the limited and narrow conditions under which many 

 scientific investigators have sometimes been compelled to work in uni- 

 versities, it has been suggested that perhaps the theater of scientific re- 

 search might be shifted from the university to the great industrial 

 laboratories which have already grown up or to the even greater ones 

 which the future is bound to bring forth. But we can dismiss this sug- 

 gestion as being unworthy. 



Organizations and institutions of many kinds are engaged in pure 

 scientific research and they should receive every encouragement, but 



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