88 THE SCIENTIFIC PLAN OF THE CONGRESS 



that a mere repetition of unrelated congresses would be not only 

 useless, but a disastrous failure. These very fears, however, them- 

 selves suggested the remedy. 



If the scholarly work of our time was to be represented at St. Louis, 

 something had to be attempted which should be not simply an imita- 

 tion of the branch-congresses which every scientific specialty in every 

 country is calling every year. Scholarship was to be asked to show 

 itself really in process, and to produce for the World's Fair meeting 

 something which without it would remain undone. To invite the 

 scholars of the world for their leisurely enjoyment and reposeful dis- 

 cussion of work done elsewhere is one thing; to call them together 

 for work which they would not do otherwise, and which ought to be 

 done, is a very different thing. The first had in St. Louis all odds 

 against it; it seemed worth while to try the second. And it seemed 

 not only worth while in the interest of scholarship, it seemed, above 

 all, the only way to give to the scholarship of our time a chance for 

 the complete demonstration of its productive energies. 



The plan of unrelated congresses, with chance combinations of 

 papers prepared at random, was therefore definitively replaced by the 

 plan of only one representative gathering, bound together by one 

 underlying thought, given thus the unity of one scholarly aim, whose 

 fulfillment is demanded by the scientific needs of our time, and is 

 hardly to be reached by other methods. Every arbitrary and indi- 

 vidual choice was then to be eliminated and every effort was to be 

 controlled by the one central purpose; the work thus to be organized 

 and prepared with the same carefulness of adjustment and elabora- 

 tion which was doubtless to be applied in the admirable exhibitions 

 of the United States Government or in the art exhibition. The open 

 question was, of course, what topic could fulfill these various demands 

 most completely; wherein lay the greatest scholarly need of our time; 

 what task could be least realized by the casual efforts of scholarship 

 at random; where was the unity of a world organization most needed? 



One thought was very naturally suggested by the external circum- 

 stances. St. Louis had asked the nations of the world to a celebration 

 of the Louisiana Purchase. Historical thoughts thus gave meaning 

 and importance to the whole undertaking. The pride of one century's 

 development had stimulated the gigantic work from its inception. An 

 immense territory had been transformed from a half wilderness into 

 a land with a rich civilization, and with a central city in which eight 

 thousand factories are at work. No thought lay nearer than to ask 

 how far this century was of similar importance for the changes in the 

 world of thought. How have the sciences developed themselves since 

 the days of the Louisiana Purchase? That is a topic which with com- 

 plete uniformity might be asked from every special science, and which 

 might thus offer a certain unity of aim to scholars of all scientific de- 



