438 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



A lasting improvement can only arise if the State recognizes that anthro- 

 pology is a science preeminently of value to the State, a science which not only 

 deserves but can demand that chairs shall be officially established for it in 

 every university. * * * Only this spread of officially authorized anthro- 

 pology in all German universities can enable it to fulfil its task — that of train- 

 ing men who. well armed with the weapon of anthropological knowledge, will 

 be able to place their skill at the service of the State, which will ever have need 

 of them in increasing numbers.' 



Our universities are not, as in Germany, Government controlled 

 institutions, although such control is yearly increasing. Here we 

 have first to show that we are supporting the State before the State 

 somewhat grudgingly will give its support to us. Hence the immedi- 

 ate aim of the anthropologist should be — not to suggest that the 

 State should a priori assist work not yet undertaken, but to do what 

 he can with the limited resources in his power, and when he has shown 

 that what he has achieved is, notwithstanding his limitations, of value 

 to the State, then he is in a position to claim effective support for 

 his science. 



I have left to myself little time to place fairly before you my third 

 insistence. 



3. INSISTENCE ON THE ADOPTION OF A NEW TECHNIQUE. 



What is it that a young man seeks when he enters the university, 

 if we put aside for a moment any social advantages, such as the 

 formation of lifelong friendships associated therewith? He seeks, 

 or ought to seek, training for the mind. He seeks, or ought to seek, 

 an open doorway to a calling which will be of use to himself, and 

 wherein he will take his part, a useful part, in the social organization 

 of which he finds himself a member. Much as we may all desire it, in 

 the pressure of modern life, it is very difficult for the young man 

 of moderate means to look upon the university training as something 

 apart from his professional training. Men more and more select 

 their academic studies with a view to their professional value. We 

 can no longer combine the senior wranglership with the pursuit of 

 a judgeship ; we can not pass out in the classical tripos and aim at 

 settling down in life as a Harley Street consultant ; we can not take 

 a D. Sc. in chemistry as a preliminary to a journalistic career. It is 

 the faculties which provide professional training that are crowded, 

 and men study nowadays physics or chemistry because they wish 

 to be physicists or chemists, or seek by their knowledge of these 

 sciences to reach commercial posts. Even the faculty of arts itself 

 runs the danger of becoming a professional school for elementary 

 school teachers. I do not approve this state of affairs; I would 

 merely note its existence. But granted it, what does anthropology 



• Correspondenz Blatt, Jahrg. xxzviii., S. 68. 



