Universities, Research and Brain Waste 5 



more or less satisfactorily cared for in different branches of science. In 

 physics and electrical engineering, for example, we have what are 

 called "Science Abstracts". 



The need of orientation will be better realized by the layman when 

 he is told that the number of titles listed in the seventeen volumes of the 

 International Catalogue for the year 1912 was 67,926. The great bulk 

 of the literature here referred to is of research character and its authors 

 number up in the tens of thousands. The individuals in this army of 

 investigators vary greatly in ability. Many of them are handicapped 

 by the conditions under which they have to work. The products of 

 their efforts are, of course, very unequal. In the aggregate, however, 

 the importance of the activities of the army of research workers to the 

 welfare of the nations can hardly be overestimated. How many of the 

 nations, how many of the individuals who go to make up the nations, 

 realize this fact? How many of our own people appreciate it adequately? 



That does not exist which I do not see is the most prevalent and most 

 disastrous of all fallacies. Every day men in high places act on this 

 fallacy. It shapes important policies and determines great issues. It 

 came very near being the undoing of Great Britain when the opening 

 of the war found her scientifically unprepared, for her statesmen in 

 taking counsel had been accustomed to leaving out of account science 

 which, as it proved, was the most important factor in the situation. It 

 is my own conviction and that of all scientists with whom I have dis- 

 cussed the matter that the modern research movement is the greatest 

 intellectual movement in the history of the human race. How many 

 Governments act as if this conviction had taken hold on them? In 

 how many of the universities on this continent have those in authority 

 seen the vision? 



The natural home of research is in the universities. There most of 

 the fundamental discoveries in science have been made in the recent past. 

 Let us hope that this may continue to be the case in the future. The 

 highest functions of a university are on the one hand to provide place 

 and opportunity for the research worker to carry on and make his dis- 

 coveries and on the other hand to train young men of selected ability 

 to use their creative faculties. This is more fully appreciated in certain 

 European countries than in America. 



In Germany, at least before the war, no man was appointed to a 

 university staff who had not proved himself to be intellectually pro- 

 ductive. Once appointed he could lecture as little or as much as he 

 pleased. He could devote practically all his time to research if he was 

 so inclined. He was relieved of financial worry. He did not need to 

 preoccupy himself with what, under certain eventualities, would become 



