188 



National Resources Committee 



Until the president and the board of trustees are led 

 to believe in and take an active stand for the support 

 of research, very little support will be forthcoming. 



Department Heads. — It is astonishing how an able 

 head of a department can inspire, energize, and en- 

 courage his staff. Unfortunately, many heads of 

 departments are not of that type. It is extremely 

 difficult to rise above the leadership under which one 

 works, especially so for a young man. Every depart- 

 ment is entitled to able and inspiring leadership. The 

 deans and presidents who do not provide it fail in 

 perhaps their most important duty. Research and the 

 development of research workers would be enormously 

 stimulated by abler leadership by department heads 

 throughout the colleges and univei'sities. 



Increasing Cooperation in Research 



As research problems increase in complexity and in 

 number, cooperation between research agencies and in- 

 dividuals, between institutions, and between different 

 departments within institutions becomes increasingly 

 important. Within industry and Government research 

 agencies such cooperation is largely secured by direc- 

 tion and organization. For much of the needed 

 cooperation in universities it is necessary to rely ap- 

 parently on a coming together of the men interested 

 in a common problem. There are four agencies which 

 can help in securing cooperation in this manner. 



The Councils. — The councils are very acceptable to 

 scholars. Important problems, difficult of solution by 

 a single agency, are selected by a planning committee, 

 and a special committee is appointed to find a solution. 

 As the council can draw on all scholars in the country, 

 very strong committees can be formed. In every case 

 where an able chairman is selected and money is avail- 

 able for the necessai'y meetings these council com- 

 mittees have proved to be powerful research agencies. 

 Funds available to the councils to enable them to main- 

 tain such committee work on a generous scale is much 

 needed in some cases. The only sources from which 

 such funds seemingly can come is from the foundations 

 or from the Government. There are many reasons why 

 Federal support for the several research councils seems 

 desirable and wise. 



Federal Research Agencies. — Some of the Federal 

 research agencies are in a position to secure valuable 

 cooperation and of these the Department of Agricul- 

 ture has accomplished much. All of these techniques 

 are more or less available for use by other Government 

 agencies. 



The National Learned Societies. — These national 

 learned societies in each field have done a great deal 

 to break down institutional jealousy and to bring men 

 in the same field into association and friendship. They 

 have also jirovided forums where new discoveries and 



theories can be intelligently' discussed and tested. It 

 would seem that perhaps their chief opportunity lies 

 in securing more cooperation between scholars in the 

 same field but in different institutions. It would bo 

 a useful experiment to provide a few of these societies 

 with modest funds to pay traveling expenses and see 

 how much their usefulness could be extended. 



Interdepartmental Committees on Specific Research 

 Subjects. — Interdepartmental committees for specific 

 research subjects as in operation at the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology have been described. These 

 committees could well be multiplied in many institu- 

 tions. Problems of importance do not recognize de- 

 partmental boundaries and generally lie across them. 

 Unless adequate interdepartmental unity of attack is 

 organized by setting up suitable interdepartmental 

 committees, problems are likely to be passed over 

 or ineffectively dealt with by one department. This 

 rather new device should be widely used. 



Providing Adequate Publication for Research 



As the literature of scholarship increases, many new 

 problems arise and become increasingly acute. In 

 fields wheic a very large number of research men are 

 active, as in chemistrj', large sums of money are avail- 

 able fi'oni many sources to meet publication expenses 

 of all sorts. In smaller fields this is often not the case. 



Abstracts Journals. — With increased volume of tech- 

 nical publication the need for good abstracts journals 

 is increasing. This need is perhaps most keenly felt in 

 the smaller institutions and is least evident in the 10 to 

 20 greatest research institutions where all periodicals 

 are available. The financing of abstracts journals is 

 a serious problem and subsidy from foundations or 

 from the Government probably must be provided if 

 abstracts journals are maintained in all the important 

 fields where they are needed. 



Publication of Learned Bools. — Increasingly, as 

 fields of knowledge are subdivided, more and more 

 learned technical books in need of publication cannot 

 be published commercially because of limited demand 

 and sale. Many of these books should be published. 

 Many at present are subsidized by universities; some 

 have been subsidized by the councils. Increasing funds 

 are needed for this purpose. 



Publication of Scientific Journals of Research. — As 

 the volume of reseai'ch increases the expense of publi- 

 cation of learned journals increases, and the difficulty 

 of securing the publication of research findings also 

 increases. These publications are very valuable. 

 Some have wide cii'culation and are readily financed. 

 Others with smaller circulation are difficult to finance. 

 Many are subsidized by the universities. It would 

 seem to be a worthy responsibility for the several 

 councils to survey the publication needs and problems 



