IO THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA 



large portions of the academic staffs from the pursuit of the 

 fundamental problems of pure science to dabbling in the minor 

 details of technical science adds little of direct value to the 

 industries and so lowers the tone of scientific scholarship that 

 technical science as well as pure science must inevitably suffer 

 in the long run. I firmly believe that technical science in 

 America is well able to take care of itself, provided it is able 

 to obtain well trained men from the universities and technical 

 schools. On the other hand, pure science stands in grave danger 

 of never being developed at all. 



I should like to quote a few words from an address by Dr. 

 Whitney, himself director of one of the most successful tech- 

 nical research laboratories in America, I quote : " The part of 

 research I am most interested in promoting is what we may 

 call the unpaid kind, not because it is the cheapest but because 

 it is the most valuable. It is most neglected, most poorly under- 

 stood, most in need of appreciative support in America." 



" The separate industries do not need encouragement in re- 

 search nearly so much as the nation needs it. The industries 

 can be depended on to estimate its value to them for they take 

 inventories. But a country which keeps no books seems to have 

 to depend on instinct and environment for its most valuable 

 research work." 



Mr. J. J. Carty, in his presidential address before the Ameri- 

 can Institute of Electrical Engineers, expresses himself as 

 follows : 



" The practical benefits which may be immediately and 

 directly traced to industrial research, when properly conducted, 

 are so great that when their importance is more generally 

 recognized industrial research will not lack the most generous 

 encouragement and support. Indeed, unless industrial research 

 abundantly supports itself it will have failed of its purpose." 



" But who is to support the researches of the pure scientist, 

 and who is to furnish him with encouragement and assistance 

 to pursue his self-sacrificing and arduous quest for that truth 

 which is certain as time goes on to bring in its train so many 

 blessings to mankind? Who is to furnish the laboratories, the 

 funds for apparatus and for traveling and foreign study?" 



