APPLIED SCIENCE AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH 213 



short-range problems, ^vhich offer immediate results; on the 

 other, they should certainly undertake a long-range study of 

 the fundamental scientihc problems of the industry that have 

 been neglected in the past. Thus the older industries need 

 an active program of scientific research much more than the 

 modern industries, but it is much more difficult to do this 

 work and to obtain support for it. Some industries, such as 

 those dealing with textiles, are divided between the succes- 

 sive stages of production. The research association must 

 think in terms of the industry as a whole rather than of a 

 single section. In the cotton industry, for instance, there are 

 not only the problems of the spinning, weaving, dyeing, 

 bleaching, and finishing branches, but there are also the 

 problems of the cotton plant itself and of the raw material 

 that it produces. 



Most research associations are faced with the problem of 

 combining a variety of functions in one institution. If the 

 association concentrates on the major long-run problems, 

 many of the smaller firms with immediate difficulties will be 

 dissatisfied. If, instead, it deals primarily with service work, 

 it may degenerate into a mere testing station, and will cer- 

 tainly lose the good will of larger firms to whom it is giving 

 little information of value. 



Research associations cannot take the place of the research 

 laboratories of the industry itself. In the latter, the new de- 

 velopments achieved are important for the individual firm. 

 They give that firm advantage over its competitors and an 

 improved position in the industry, and they bring to the 

 laboratory, therefore, the enthusiastic support of the other 

 parts of the organization. No company capable of doing its 

 own research will pass to an association serving its competi- 

 tors equally with itself the problems that seem to it most 

 promising. 



While the British Research Associations have undoubtedly 

 been useful to the small units in their industries, they cannot 

 be considered on the whole to have promoted the establish- 

 ment of research laboratories in the individual companies of 



