119 
resistant races. Plants, like human beings, differ in their suscepti- 
bility to diseases. Some are immune and others are susceptible. 
This means that we can cultivate immune races and let the sus- 
ceptibles perish. We cannot handle human diseases in this way. 
Before what we speak of as the wonderful advance of medicine, 
we were unconsciously practising selection of the human races for 
immunity. The susceptibles disappeared and the immunes sur- 
vived. Now medicine has been so successful that it saves the 
susceptibles and keeps them mixed with the immunes, so that 
our human problem is more difficult than it used to be. But we 
have no such sentiment about plants, and we can cultivate im- 
munity and eliminate susceptibility. 
I am told, by those who are trained in collecting such statistics, 
that if these suggestions of scientific research can be generally ap- 
plied, our food production will overtake our population. It is in 
such ways that the results of science find application. This is not 
merely a local service, but a national service, and in such a time 
as this it is a patriotic service. 
May I call your attention to the work of the National Research 
Council in connection with your opportunity. This Council has 
been appointed by the National Academy of Sciences at the 
request of President Wilson. Its purpose is to bring into co- 
operation all of our scientific equipment in an attack upon the 
problems we are facing. This week we have been canvassing the 
problems that need immediate attention, and they are to be as- 
signed to various research centers, where properly trained men 
and adequate equipment are available. I want to include this 
Institution in these assignments. Your opportunity is an unusual 
one, for already you have many things that are needed. You have 
the opportunity to respond to this call from your country, and 
to see to it that research is properly provided for. Such research 
work not only provides what are called the sinews of war, when 
war becomes necessary, but it also means progress and power in 
times of peace. It is this opportunity that led me to say earlier 
in this address that perhaps you have builded better than you 
knew. 
Do not be misled into thinking that only those problems should 
be attacked that have been developed by some immediate need. 
