10 



Instead of abdicating in their favor, may 

 not our universities, stimulated by the won- 

 derful achievements of these industrial 

 laboratories, find a way to advance the con- 

 duct of their own pure scientific research, 

 the grand responsibility for which rests 

 upon them. This responsibility should 

 now be felt more heavily than ever by our 

 American universities, not only because 

 the tragedy of the great war has caused the 

 destruction of European institutions of 

 learning, but because even a worse thing 

 has happened. So great have been the 

 fatalities of the war that the universities 

 of the old world hardly dare to count their 

 dead. 



But what can the American universities 

 do, for they, like the pure scientists, are 

 not engaged in a lucrative occupation. 

 Universities are not money-making institu- 

 tions, and what can be done without money ? 



There is much that can be done without 

 money. The most important and most fun- 

 damental factor in scientific research is the 

 mind of a man suitably endowed by nature. 

 Unless the scientific investigator has the 

 proper genius for his work, no amount of 

 financial assistance, no apparatus or labo- 

 ratories, however complete, and no foreign 

 travel and study, however extensive, will en- 

 able such a mind to discover new truths or 

 to inspire others to do so. Judgment and 

 appreciation and insight into character on 

 the part of the responsible university 

 authorities must be applied to the problem, 

 so that when the man with the required 

 mental attributes does appear he may be 

 appreciated as early in his career as pos- 

 sible. This is a very difficult thing to do 



