THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 427 



State Universities, the Association of American Universities, 

 and the American Association of University Professors. 



5. Division of Research Extension. There is something of 

 a paradox in the fact that despite the reputation of the United 

 States for fertility in mechanical inventiveness, the substantial 

 productivity of the country, in what may be seriously entitled 

 scientific industrial research, has with the exception of a few 

 industries been conspicuously small. The experiences of the 

 war brought out with a vividness nothing else could have done 

 the backwardness of the country in this field of industrial re- 

 search. Whether the high tariff walls which have generally 

 existed to protect our industries, or the fact that we have had 

 an adequate outlet for our industrial energies in our own na- 

 tional commerce, had concealed the real conditions, it remains 

 true that the fact of our backwardness had been screened from 

 general public recognition. Nothing is more certain, however, 

 than that if we expect to gain and retain our fair share of the 

 control of foreign markets, especially as regards Germany and 

 Great Britain, we must arouse to the necessity of basing our 

 great scientific industries more fully than heretofore upon 

 sound scientific foundations. We must also appreciate the 

 fact that to keep them abreast of the times, we must make per- 

 sistent use of scientific research. Recognizing the urgency of 

 this general situation, the National Research Council has estab- 

 lished a special Division (originally called the Division of In- 

 dustrial Relations, but now known as the Division of Research 

 Extension), devoted to the promotion of a wider appreciation 

 of the true facts of the case and to the stimulation among the 

 industries, wherever possible, of active research enterprises. 



The problem here subdivides somewhat naturally into two 

 main issues. There is, on the one hand, the case of the great 

 corporations controlling one or more of the large essential in- 

 dustries ; and there is, on the other hand, the case of the small 

 manufacturer who may or may not be engaged in an industry 

 already occupied by dominating corporations. In the first case, 

 the problem is one of persuading the directors of these larger 



