270 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Aeronautics, consisting of scientific 

 men capable of advising the govern- 

 ment on the development of the aero- 

 nautical art. The result has been most 

 excellent, and a continuing three-year 

 program has been evolved which will 

 y-ive within that interval of time to the 

 United States as good an aerial service 

 as there is anywhere in the world. A 

 little more than a year ago Secretary 

 Daniels appointed a Naval Advisory 

 Board, consisting of splendid engineers 

 and scientists, capable of advising our 

 naval departments on every question 

 that may arise in the course of our 

 naval preparations. One of the great 

 results of the work of this Xaval Board 

 is the splendid appropriation of several 

 million dollars for the organization of 

 a naval research laboratory. Every sci- 

 entific problem which is before the 

 Xavy, as, for instance, the corrosion of 

 guns, is referred to the Naval Advisory 

 Board, and receives there the very Ijest 

 sci(>ntific consideration. 



A year ago President Wilson, 

 through the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences, started the movement for mobil- 

 izing all the scientific research facilities 

 of this country, and thus the National 

 Research Council was born. In this 

 National Eesearch Council we have now 

 a splendidly organized coijperative body 

 of all men of science, embracing not 

 only our universities and engineering- 

 schools, but also members of the vari- 

 ous scientific bureaus in Washington, 

 and our industrial organizations, and 

 all the members of our national engi- 

 neering and scientific societies. This 

 cooperation is already bearing fruit. 

 Scientific problems wdiich are connected 

 with the defense of the country have 



been solved or are in rapid process of 

 solution, as, for example, the produc- 

 tion of optical glass, and the production 

 of nitric acid. 



One problem of the war deserves 

 id)()vc all a s])ccial nicntioii here. It 

 is the submarine problem. The Ger- 

 mans have announced to the world that 

 unrestricted submarine warfare is their 

 trump card, and that they are staking 

 their all upon this card. The result of 

 this move of German ruthlessness has 

 been most serious ; it forced us into the 

 war, and we have now to condmt the 

 very wea})on which the inventive genius 

 of this country produced. The subma- 

 rine itself, as well as the instrumen- 

 talities employed in its operation, is the 

 ])roduct of American inventiveness, the 

 same inventiveness which gave birth to 

 the telegraph, the telephone, the phono- 

 graph, the rapid-firing gun, and the 

 flying machine. But the Germans 

 ought to have known that the same 

 inventive genius which gave them the 

 submarine weapon will also knock it 

 out of their hands. 



The scientific men of this country 

 connnand an art which has been devel- 

 oped here during the last five years by 

 scientific research of the very highest 

 order. Some of the vei-y best scientific 

 minds of America are confident that 

 they will soon employ this art to con- 

 vince the Germans that the submarine 

 is the most fragile weapon which they 

 are wielding, and if this weapon is really 

 the last truni]) card up;)n which they 

 liave staked their all. then tliey have lost. 

 Victory will be ours and the people of 

 this country wdl recognize that after 

 all Scientific Research is the most valu- 

 able asset which the country possesses. 



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