THE PROVINCE OF A GREAT ENDOWMENT FOR 



RESEARCH l 



IN response to the request for the views of American men 

 of science on the mission of the Carnegie Institution, I would 

 first of all express the hope that the trustees will reject those 

 propositions which would most seriously menace the free de- 

 velopment and untrammeled activity of our various scientific 

 bodies and institutions of learning especially the establish- 

 ment of a huge reserve fund, with the annual distribution of 

 its income among the " deserving poor." It seems to me that, 

 while there may be occasional demands for large sums to equip 

 exploring parties on behalf of some of the descriptive sciences, 

 the legitimate demands for assistance in research in the exact 

 sciences ought not to be very large, in any one year; in fact, 

 I venture the assertion that the existence of large sums to be 

 devoted in this way might lead to wastefulness in methods, 

 rather than to the development of that resourcefulness which 

 has been the characteristic of the greatest investigators. 

 Favored beneficiaries might choose a field of work from which 

 others would be debarred by questions of cost, rather than 

 strike out upon lines of greater originality and importance. 

 Again, it cannot be denied that the establishment of a stand- 

 ard of measurement with the utmost precision is work well 

 worthy of national support: but if the Carnegie Institution 

 were to encourage, by means of its stipends, all our most capa- 

 ble physicists to devote themselves to this class of work, ad- 

 vance in this department of knowledge would be seriously 

 hampered. Is it a hardy prediction, however, that the votes of 



1 Reprinted from Science, N. S., vol. 16, 1902, pp. 485-86. 



