AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



557 



and one fourth of those of the second class. 

 The three rural New England states have lost 

 seventeen eighteenths of their men of the first 

 class and one half of those of the second class. 

 These conditions are significant and serious. 

 Other states have improved their positions. 

 Thus, thanks to its great university, Michigan 

 has 22 men in the first group as compared with 

 five in the second. Thanks again to its uni- 

 versities, Illinois has increased its number of 

 scientific men from 42 to 63, of whom 36 are 

 in the first class. California, Missouri and 

 Minnesota have, on the other hand, called men 

 who are below the average. 



The large centers of scientific population in 

 Massachusetts and New York have about 

 maintained their positions, having produced 

 men of about average standing and their resi- 

 dent men of science being of about average 

 standing. Massachusetts has, however, gained 

 % little and New York has lost a little. Of 

 the 119 scientific men in Washington, 69 are 

 in the first group and 50 in the second. This 

 appears to me to be a fact of very great impor- 

 tance. It is commonly said that less able sci- 

 entific men are attracted to the government 

 service, that those who are able leave it for 

 university positions and that those who stay 

 are not encouraged to do their best work. 

 Such statements are refuted by these statis- 

 tics. The average performance of the scien- 

 tific men at Washington is higher than in 

 Massachusetts or in New York. This con- 

 clusion is most gratifying to those of us who 

 believe that the future of scientific research 

 depends largely on its support by the nation, 

 the states and the municipalities. 



The writer has on various occasions called 

 attention to the economic conditions which 

 limit scientific research. As one of the ob- 

 " jects of the present work is to improve these 

 conditions, it may be well to repeat here the 

 argument. Our economic system rests on the 

 free exchange of services. A state of society 

 may some day be reached in which each will 

 aim to give as much as he can and to take as 

 little, but at present it appeals to our sense of 

 fairness that each should ask for his services 



what someone else is willing to pay. In the 

 increasing complexity of our society this 

 method is working two serious injustices. 

 One of these is the formation of monopolies. 

 Thanks chiefly to the applications of science, 

 many services can now be supplied at a cost 

 less than people would be willing to pay. 

 When free competition is excluded, either by 

 the conditions of the case or by ingenious 

 combination, people may be made to pay more 

 than a fair return for certain services. The 

 problems of monopoly are being discussed on 

 all sides, and remedies are being sought in all 

 directions; but the injustice which in a way 

 *is the converse of monopoly has scarcely been 

 noticed. This is the case in which an indi- 

 vidual gives services without an adequate re- 

 turn, owing to the fact that they are not ren- 

 dered to a single individual or group who will 

 pay for them, but to society as a whole. A 

 surgeon may ask for an operation for appendi- 

 citis as large a fee as his^atient is willing to 

 pay, but should he after years of research dis- 

 cover a method of preventing appendicitis 

 altogether, he would receive no payment at all, 

 but would, on the contrary, give up all future 

 fees for the operation. The surgeons who 

 by risking and sacrificing their lives discov- 

 ered how to suppress yellow fever have re- 

 ceived no return for their great work. 



The two most important services for society 

 the bearing and rearing of children and 

 creation in science and art are exactly those 

 for which society gives no economic returns, 

 leaving them dependent on instincts which are 

 in danger of atrophy. This state of affairs 

 not only does injustice to the unrewarded in- 

 dividual, but works immeasurable harm to 

 society a greater injury probably than all 

 existing monopolies. There are more than a 

 hundred thousand physicians in the United 

 States who are practising on their patients 

 for fees, while there are scarcely two hundred 

 who are studying seriously the causes of dis- 

 ease and the methods of preventing it. The 

 conditions are similar in law and in all pro- 

 fessions and trades. The scientific investi- 

 gator is usually an amateur. He has wealth 



