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Long Views and Short Views 
On pages 42-62 are statements concerning investigations under 
way at the Garden during 1931. ‘These are to be interpreted as 
reports of progress. The writer has frequently been asked whether 
a problem of his own or of another has not been completed. The 
asker has not realized that almost every scientific discovery serves 
to disclose a whole new series of problems. One of the contrasts 
between business and science is that the business man, as James 
Truslow Adams recently noted, is from the very nature of his 
occupation apt to have short views and distrust all others. It 
was once said, as superlative praise, of the late J. Pierpont Mor- 
gan that he thought in ten-year periods. We must have long views 
in trying to evaluate and understand research—as, indeed, in plan- 
ning the development of a scientific and educational institution ; 
we must think in terms of a lifetime. We must not forget, for 
example, that after many physicians have spent most of their 
lives studying one organ of the human body there is still much to 
be learned about it; that Michelson spent a lifetime investigating 
the propagation of light; that after nearly thirty years of study of 
the destructive Chestnut Blight we are still unable to control it; 
that Darwin continued his research for twenty years before he 
began to write his “ Origin of Species.” 
Registered Research Students 
The number of persons applying to be enrolled at the Garden for 
research tends to increase. During 1931, the enrollment has been 
six—two registered at New York University for advanced de- 
erees, two from the faculty of ITunter College (New York), one 
graduate of Wellesley College, and one teacher of botany in 
Abraham Lincoln High School. A report on graduate students 
and independent investigators enrolled during 1931 is given on 
page 62. 
The Cost of Research 
Research is expensive, but it is not a luxury. It costs less than 
war, or illness, or cosmetics, or chewing gum. The cost of one 
modern telescope would endow a substantial program of research 
at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in perpetuity. Additional funds 
for this purpose are a fundamental need. 
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