SUPPORT FROM PRIVATE PHILANTHROPY 



The situation of the classical private foundations is some- 

 what different. The major ones are not restricted to any special 

 subject or field and the proportion of their annual incomes 

 available for basic research is relatively small when measured 

 against other sums spent for the same purposes. 



Two recent reports on the state of research give attention 

 to the future role of private foundations and specifically deplore 

 the "hesitancy of private foundations to maintain the level of 

 their contributions to scientific research in academic and other 

 non-profit institutions." Both of them go on to suggest special 

 sorts of activities which may be most appropriate for private 

 foundations. For example, the report of the President's Science 

 Advisory Committee points to "a vital and unique role . . . 

 in supporting imaginative and audacious research that industry 

 or government mav not always support." 



Similar statements implying unusual insight and/or cour- 

 age to private foundations are frequently made and they are 

 of course not particularly difficult for foundation officers and 

 trustees to accept. But are they really true? 



Underlying such statements is the tacit assumption that 

 the most imaginative research is in some sense frightening and 

 upsetting. Many bona fide examples of the frightening nature 

 of new ideas can be cited from the history of science. The 

 founders of the heliocentric theory certainly ran into trouble 

 on these grounds; the shy and retiring Darwin needed a Huxley 

 to run interference against the massed Wilberforces of his day. 

 Semmelweis was driven mad by the conservative opposition of 

 his superiors in Vienna. But it is difficult to find similar ex- 

 amples in the recent history of the natural sciences. Einstein 

 was made Ausserordentlich professor within four years of his 

 first paper on the special theory of relativity. The destroyers 

 of parity received Nobel prizes almost immediately after letting 

 their results become known. The general public reads calmly 



243 



