SCIENCE 



Friday, July 18, 1919 



CONTENTS 

 Democratio Coordination of Scientific Ef- 

 forts : Dr. H. H. Whetzel 51 



On Duty Free Importation: C. H. Ash 55 



The Division of Engineering, National Re- 

 search Council : Galen H. Clevengek 58 



Scientific Events: — 



The Watt Centenary ; The Shortage of Coal 

 in Europe; The Proposed Medical Founda- 

 tion for New YorTc City ; The Philadelphia 

 Meeting of the American Chemical Society. 60 



Scientific Notes and News 62 



University and Educational News 65 



Discission and Correspondence : — 



The History of Science and the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science : 

 Frederick E. Brasch. The Needs of Paleo- 

 botany: Dr. G. E. Wieland. Gravitational 

 Attraction and Vraniwm, Lead: Anders 

 Bull. Working up in a Swing: Drs. V. 

 Karapetopp, Paul E. Klopsteg 66 



Scientific BooTcs: — 

 Kinnieutt on Sewage Disposal: Dr. George 

 "W. Puller 71 



Special Articles: — 

 The Possible Presence of Coronium in 

 Selium from Natural Gas: Dr. Hamilton 

 P. Cady and Howard McKeb Elsey 71 



The Iowa Academy of Science: Dr. James 

 H. Lees 72 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudaon, N. Y. 



DEMOCRATIC COORDINATION OF SCI- 

 ENTIFIC EFFORTSi 



Cooperation and coordination are the very 

 essence of all evolution and progress, biolog- 

 ical, social, political, moral, industrial or what 

 not. We acknowledge without controversy the 

 fundamental role of these factors in the evo- 

 lution of living things. They constitute the 

 woof and warp of the social fabric, without 

 them political machinery can not function, 

 and the wheels of industry cease to turn ; they 

 condition every ethical and moral principle. 

 It is the glory of science that it has uncovered 

 and made clear this fundamental fact of or- 

 ganic evolution. But in the organization of 

 its own activities how little has it profited by 

 its own discovery. The Honorable Elihu Hoot 

 has well said:- 



Science, like charity, should begin at home, and 

 tas done so very imperfectly. Science has been 

 arranging, classifying, methodizing, simplifying 

 everything except itself. It has made possible the 

 tremendous modern development of the power of 

 organization which has so multiplied the effective 

 power of human effort as to make the difference 

 from the past seem to be of kind rather than of 

 degree. It has organized itself very imperfectly. 

 Scientific men are only recently realizing that the 

 principles which apply to success on a large scale 

 in transportation and manufacture and general 

 staff work apply to them; that the difference be- 

 tween a mob and an army does not depend upon 

 occupation or purpose but upon human nature; 

 that the effective power of a great number of 

 scientific men may be increased by organization 

 just as tihe effective power of a great number of 

 laborers may be increased by military discipline. 



It may well seem strange to the layman that 



1 Presented in the symposium on "Our present 

 Aatj as botanists" before the joint session of 

 the Botanical Society of America and the Ameri- 

 can Phytopathological Society, December 26, 1918, 

 at Baltimore, Md. 



2 Science, N. S., 48, 532-534, 1918. 



