126 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute 



stability of position among scientific leaders, which has been the rule, 

 rather than the exception, until very recently in most of the scientific 

 establishments of the American government. The present moment, 

 marked by scientific men leaving the govemm^ent service in unprece- 

 dented numbers, may be accounted for primarily by the bidding for 

 their services by industries and institutions that have been able to 

 readjust their salary scales to meet the mounting cost of living more 

 promptly than has the government. It is within reason to suppose 

 however that this situation will be eventually readjusted. 



What then are some of the advantages to the scientific man of his 

 position in the government service as compared with the university 

 man or the man in a research laboratory pertaining to industry? The 

 attributes the research worker most cherishes are freedom for develop- 

 ment within his chosen field; unhampered opportunity to publish the 

 results of his discoveries; the stimulation afforded by the congenial 

 atmosphere of sympathetic and critical co-workers; an absence of ex- 

 traneous, irksome tasks; in the existence and maintenance of the ever 

 changing material facilities for research. Taking the Bureau of Stan- 

 dards as a type of governmental institution devoted largely to scientific 

 research, I can state from experience I know of no other type where these 

 desirable attributes are more happily blended than here. 



There is also the added satisfaction, or privilege if you will, the 

 "government scientist" possesses, in that he is conscious of working 

 directly for the public welfare in response to a public demand, expressed 

 through the representatives of the people in Congress by their allotment 

 of funds to support his work. This direct relation to the public— and it is 

 mxuch more intimate than many persons realize — gives him a pride and 

 confidence in his accomplishments that cannot be had by one working 

 solely for him^self and his science or for an industry or commercial firm. 

 His sense of responsibility is enhanced and he will plan his work accord- 

 ingly. As he demonstrates his ability to make efficient use of it, his 

 freedom of choice of subjects is almost unlimited, and he has absolute 

 liberty as to his methods of attacking the problems he sets out to solve, 

 I wonder if more can be said for any other type of research centre? 



The craving to communicate his ideas and exhibit his work to others 

 is a well known trait of the scientific man. Among the hundreds, ray 

 thousands of investigators in the industrial research laboratories the 

 ideals of which have been outlined by Messrs, Jewett, Mees,^ Carty, 

 Nutting, how many of these men have the opportunity of free communion 

 with others? On all important problems — important from the technical, 



^C. E. K. Mees, the Organization pf Industrial Scientific Research, McGraw Hill, 

 1920, contains an excellent bibliography of recent titles. 



