A WORLD OF CHANGE — WEIDLEIN 193 



Wonders indeed! Yet science realizes how truly little headway has 

 been made, how much more remains to be done. 



Scientific research is still young, even in the life of the universities, 

 which are primarily responsible for its existence. Having gained the 

 spirit of research from the universities, the industries have applied its 

 methods to their own affairs with really amazing results. During the 

 last 25 years the number of industrial research laboratories in the 

 United States has grown from a very few to more than 2,000, which 

 accounts for the great change that has taken place in our standard of 

 living. It was chemistry, perhaps more than any other science, that 

 taught business men the true significance of pure and applied research. 



Without the evolution of scientific investigations in the universities, 

 industrial laboratories might never have come into existence. Be- 

 sides the very idea of research, the universities have furnished the 

 industries with men possessing knowledge not only of the underlying 

 scientific facts and theories but of the methods and techniques of in- 

 vestigational work. The man with a true scientific mind is always 

 open to change. From the universities also proceeds much of the 

 basic knowledge of science on which the industries of today have been 

 built and which will be the foundation for the industries of the future. 

 Accordingly, this essential contributory part of our universities should 

 be recognized and nurtured by the industries. Colleges and schools 

 have invested some $300,000,000 in chemical buildings and equipment. 

 Real progress is made through the cooperation of pure science, 

 industrial research, and the industrialists. 



The expenditures for industrial research in this country have in- 

 creased steadily. The chemical industry, the largest cultivator and 

 supporter of research, has enlarged its expenditures on laboratory 

 investigations ; the food industry has likewise increased its appropria- 

 tions for research. The metal-working field, which during the depres- 

 sion stopped much of its research, is now resuming laboratory investi- 

 gations on a large scale. Researches have lately been accelerated in 

 the fields of building materials, air conditioning, synthetic fibers, 

 organic chemicals, plastics, "tray" agriculture, and new sources of 

 motor fuel. 



It may, moreover, be observed that the industries which engaged to 

 the largest extent in scientific research emerged from the depression 

 first and did the most to aid national recovery. 



It must be remembered that it is only through applied knowledge 

 that the people have gained the material blessings of our civilization. 

 Every useful agent in our civilization is the product of our industry, 

 and it is only through the industries that these new products of civili- 

 zation can go to the people. New mechanisms, such as the telegraph, 

 the telephone, the electric light, the X-ray, new medicines, dyes, and 

 new alloys come to us only through the industries. We often hear it 



