REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1914. 17 



gator's time is none too much. Little productive work in this 

 line may be expected from those who are absorbingly preoccupied 

 with other affairs. Herein, as well as in other vocations, it is 

 difficult to serve two or more exacting masters. 



3. That those most likely to produce important results in 

 research are those who have already proved capacity for effec- 

 tiveness therein and who are at the same time able to devote the 

 bulk of their energies thereto. In general, men are not qualified 

 for the responsibilities of research until they have completed 

 independently and published several worthy investigations. 



4. That research, like architecture and engineering, is increas- 

 ingly effective in proportion as it is carefully planned and exe- 

 cuted in accordance with definite programs. A characteristic 

 defect of a large majority of the proposals for research submitted 

 to the Institution is a lack of tangible specifications. Estimates, 

 especially of time and funds essential to carry out such proposals, 

 are almost always too small. Those commonly made, even by 

 skilled investigators, may be on the average safely doubled. 



5. That, in spite of the most painstaking foresight, research 

 tends to expand more rapidly and hence to demand a more rapid 

 increase of resources than most other realms of endeavor. Its 

 unexpected developments are often more important than its 

 anticipated results and new lines of inquiry often become more 

 urgent than those carefully prearranged for pursuit. 



6. That it is much easier, in general, to do effective work 

 of research in the older fields of inquiry than in the newer ones. 

 It is especially difficult to enter those fields in which there is as 

 yet no consensus of opinion concerning what may be investigated 

 and what criteria may be followed. In some of the older fields, 

 however, like the so-called humanities, for example, there is at 

 present no such consensus of opinion, if one may judge from the 

 large mass of expert but hopelessly conflicting testimony fur- 

 nished to the Institution by its correspondents. In such fields 

 it appears now practicable to proceed only in a somewhat arbi- 

 trary fashion, accomplishing here and there good pieces of work 

 regardless of divided opinions or even in opposition to expert 

 advice, in illustration of which may be cited the Institution's 

 publications of the ''Old Yellow Book" and the ''Arthurian 

 Romances." 



