REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1915. 15 



every established fact, every newly discovered principle, and 

 every generalization from fact and principle is sooner or later 

 turned to advantageous account. Moreover, this induction from 

 history is now so well estabUshed that a research organization 

 as such should never concern itseh seriously with the question 

 whether a proposed investigation will turn out to be of immedi- 

 ate utility. The question it should ask is "Whether it is now 

 practicable to undertake the proposed work and do it thoroughly 

 well?" If this is decided in the affirmative, the organization may 

 proceed with equanimity, confident of the final, even if doubtful 

 of the contemporary, verdict. On the other hand, while holding 

 to the views just indicated it is not necessary to ignore equally 

 important items of mundane wisdom. It needs to be kept in 

 mind that not all worthj^ subjects of research are at any epoch 

 coordinately practicable of pursuit. In fact, as pointed out 

 repeatedly in previous reports, there may be enterprises quite 

 unready for investigation by a given organization at a given time, 

 and other enterprises which under existing conditions would 

 result only in a waste of energy and resources. 



(2) In answer to the second question it may be said that 

 while there is inherently an element of uncertainty in respect to 

 the comparabilit}" of returns with outlay in the conduct of 

 research, this uncertainty is in general much less than in most 

 unexplored fields for investment of effort and capital. System- 

 atic research is quite certain to secure some advances; even nega- 

 tive results are often of great value; and the elimination of error 

 is almost as important as the discovery of truth. Here, again, 

 appreciation of the time element is essential. A just verdict 

 can not be rendered by our contemporaries; it must be left to 

 posterity. Progress is not so much for the individual as for the 

 race. It should be observed, also, that the costs of progress 

 attributable to deliberate investigation have been, and are still, 

 vanishingly small in comparison with the costs of the less con- 

 templative forms of human endeavor. But who shaU say that 

 the permanent returns from these two contrasted realms of social 

 effort are not more nearlj^ inversely than directly proportional 

 to the respective outlays? The appalhng events now absorbing 

 the world's attention are painfully instructive in seeming to 

 prove that in some of his efforts to understand the cosmos wherein 



