36 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



attained. To secure this end the Institution must not only seek to aid 

 mainly eminent investigators, but it must seek to aid them for such periods 

 and to such an extent that their best efforts may be enlisted. The grantee 

 should be able to feel that his connection, tho temporary, with the Institu- 

 tion is creditable, and, reciprocally, that the aid he accepts implies higher 

 obligations than those attaching to an educational scholarship or fellowship. 

 In many cases within the experience of the Institution grantees appear to 

 have regarded the system of small grants as a sort of lottery, involving 

 neither credit to nor responsibility from either party to an award. Expe- 

 rience of this and similar kinds is inevitable, however, in the formative 

 stages of the Institution ; for the distinction between a research institution 

 and an educational institution is not yet so clearly defined that contem- 

 porary society can avoid attributing to the former the eleemosynary function 

 which is being slowly eliminated from the latter. 



In conformity with the views here set forth the President is disposed to 

 recommend that in general minor projects be aided only when thej^ can be 

 carried on by investigators of known competence ; that such investigators 

 become for the time being affiliated to and advisers of the Institution, and 

 that they be designated as Research Associates of the Institution. The 

 periods of afl&liation of such associates must be determined, of course, by the 

 circumstances of individual cases. But it may be observed that as a rule 

 these periods will be from two to five years, or more, since few investigations 

 well worth undertaking by the Institution can be brought to satisfactory 

 conclusions in shorter intervals of time. 



It appears worthy of note, from the point of view of evolution, that the 



Institution finds itself occupied with two principal divisions of activities, 



namely, those arising from its internal affairs and 



Mode of Development ^hose arising from its external affairs. On the one 



of Institution. '^ 



hand, we are busily engaged with many investiga- 

 tions, in many diverse fields, carried on under widely varying conditions. 

 On the other hand, we are equally busily engaged with a multitude of exter- 

 nal relations which are usually more or less conflicting and often incom- 

 patible. Thus the development of the Institution may be likened to the 

 struggle of an organism which is trying at once to discover its proper func- 

 tions and to adjust itself to the conditions of its environment. 



It is worthy of note, also, from the same point of view, that this struggle 

 is inevitable to a great degree, and that it is only out of the resulting chaos 

 of opinions as to ways, means, and methods, and out of the experience of 

 the Institution itself, that definite and approved lines of action and policy 

 may be attained. 



In view of these circumstances, it seems essential to warn our allies of the 

 academic world and the public at large against the danger of expecting 

 more from the Institution than is possible of accomplishment in a limited 



