PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION D. 75 



training' is not everything. " Tliougli you bray a fool witli 

 wheat m a mortar with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness 

 depart from him." Eather have an untrained man with ability 

 than a fool with a degree. In this connection we must recognise 

 three classes of men : (1) the self-made man ; (2) the university- 

 made man; (3) the university man-made man. A generation 

 ago the self-made man in science could still be found, but 

 to-day he is a rare specimen. The vast majority of those who 

 pass as such come under the influence of trained men, from 

 whom they learn and in course of time become proficient and 

 achieve well-merited recognition. But the indispensable 

 nucleus is the man who has come under the sway of our institu- 

 tions of learning and has a thorough grasp of the problems of 

 the day. A certain number of untrained men can be absorbed, 

 but })e it not overlooked that they are a side-draft on the load 

 until such time as they become efficient. Increase their 

 number, and the inevitable result is to reduce both speed and 

 efficiency and to discourage the men who have spent time and 

 means in preliminary training. That is all the^more reason 

 why facilities should be available to enable the man of great 

 natural ability to be trained and thrown into action without 

 the exhausting struggle against odds for years. The probabili- 

 ties are that whatever success he achieves in his own strength 

 will be small in comparison with what he could have done had 

 proper facilities been available for hini in his younger days. 

 'No system of education can create ability, but it does enable 

 each man to do the best that is possible for him. The outstand- 

 ing man becomes more outstanding and the average man who 

 otherwise would never be heard of at all is made available for 

 a wider field of usefulness. 



Ample financial means exist to enable every man or woman 

 of every race to attain his or her limit of achievement, but the 

 difficulty is to arouse such a thoroug-h popular interest in the 

 national welfare that they will be made available. 



In the past progress has been slow because it has depended 

 on the devoted few. If progress is to be more rapid in future. 

 South Africa must endow its schools, colleges and universities 

 more liberally and see to it that conditions are such as to attract 

 able men and women to its service. 



I am sure you will all agree that thus far science has done 

 much for South Africa. It remains to be seen what South 

 Africa, in its own interests, will do for science. 



