SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN AMERICA 



Besides, the object of the scientist is research, and how shall the ex- 

 periment station carry on further investigation after new truth if it 

 must stop short and enforce the accumulating mass of revised practise. 

 It will soon be so cluttered up under such a policy that new work is 

 impossible and most of its funds and laboratory space will be used for 

 the purpose of "regulatory work," when further progress is practically 

 impossible, a condition that has already overtaken certain of the experi- 

 ment stations and is all too rapidly threatening others. 



The only safety either to the research worker, the station or the 

 public is for the investigator to verify his discoveries, point out the 

 method of their practical use, and go on after other truths, leaving 

 the public to make such use of the new knowledge as it deems wise and 

 relying upon the usual police power of the state for its enforcement, if 

 enforcement is necessary. In no other way can research be protected; in 

 no other way can the stations discharge the public service for which they 

 were organized; and in no other way can the confidence of the public be 

 indefinitely enjoyed. 



The rate and the intensity with which administration under one pre- 

 text or another is coming to dominate research in this country, especially 

 along agricultural lines, is little short of appalling to any candid observer 

 who takes stock of the situation and who has the courage of his con- 

 victions. . . . 



All this is done in the name of one or the other of two agencies — 

 the administration of public funds, or the demands of efficiency. 



Officers connected with federal and state administration seem to be 

 unable to distinguish between the business of auditing and that of super- 

 vision. They reason that if they are in any way to certify funds they 

 must also approve the work. In this way has ordinary auditing developed 

 within twenty-five years into what was at first inspection of work and 

 at last a kind of "cooperation" in which the one to be held responsible 

 for results is under the dominance of authority entirely outside the insti- 

 tution which he serves. In this way an outside individual, even a minor 

 officer, is able to overrule a university and its entire administrative 

 machinery. 



Efficiency is more insidious, for it works under the guise of service 

 and proves by figures that scientists, teachers and others in the public 

 service must be standardized in order to be made efficient. . . . 



Modern efficiency standards are developed from the manufacture of 

 shoes, clothes-pins, overalls, etc., and are expressed in motions per hour. 

 These standards are not applicable to research. Aloney put into research 

 is bread cast upon the waters. In the serious business of searching after 

 new truth, no man knows in advance the road that shall be traveled be- 

 fore he may stand upon the heights. He may be held down, but he can 

 not be pushed up. No power on earth is so impelling as his own initi- 

 ative and determination to achieve. 



Under what project did Darwin work? Did Faraday report regu- 

 larly upon the progress of his mental wanderings after firm resting 

 places? Could the searchers after the principle of radioactivity report 

 progress from time to time? How shall we, even in the interest of effi- 



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