146 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1285 



observations of the sun, stars, and nebute. 

 And I might add, if I thought it would 

 strengthen the argument, that the light gas 

 helium, which was first produced on a large 

 scale during the war, and would have rendered 

 the great bombing dirigibles of the Allies 

 practically safe over Berlin, because of its non- 

 inflammable and non-explosive character, was 

 discovered in the sun a quarter of a century 

 before it was found on the earth. 



But I have said enough, I hope, to convince 

 you that astronomy has been of real service to 

 the world, and that its study should be con- 

 tinued, especially in this prolific period when 

 our understanding of the extent and nature of 

 the universe is advancing more rapidly than 

 ever before. And if the present duty of the 

 astronomer to advance the knowledge of his 

 science is plain, that of the investigator in 

 every other field is equally so. He should go 

 back to research, with new vigor and redoubled 

 energy, without troubling himself for a mo- 

 ment with the question of immediate practical 

 return. 



Industrial research must be enormously de- 

 veloped in the United States, and the old dis- 

 tinction between pure and applied science 

 must be swept away.^ But once awakened, as 

 they already are, the industries may be trusted 

 to follow the example of the duPont Com- 

 pany, which began with five research chemists 

 in 1902, and spent three millions in their re- 

 search laboratories during 1918. The task of 

 the educational institution and of the private 

 research foundation under such conditions is 

 a tremendous one. They must not only de-. 

 velop investigators capable of doing the work 

 of the industries, as the German imiversities 

 have done for so many years; they must also 

 push forward, on a far greater scale than ever 

 before, their researches for the advancement 

 of knowledge. Only thus can the highest ad- 

 vantage of science and industry, the chief 

 interests of public welfare, and the greatest 

 national progress, be attained. 



George Ellery Hale 



Mount Wilson Observatoey 



~ See Hale, ' ' The National Engineering Societies 

 and the National Research Council." 



THE PRESS AS AN INTERMEDIARY 



BETWEEN THE INVESTIGATOR 



AND THE PUBLICi 



It it with some diffidence that as a rank 

 amateur I accept the invitation of so learned 

 a body to make any suggestions even upon 

 that branch of your work upon which we are 

 all amateurs. But perhaps just because it is 

 a question, not of the discovery of truth, but 

 of the promulgation of that truth to the un- 

 professional public, there may be some ad- 

 vantage in approaching it from the standpoint 

 of a mere member of that public. 



I am not sure that there is unanimous or 

 immediate consent to the doctrine that any 

 merely popular intermediary between the in- 

 vestigator and the public is even desirable. 

 Certainly there has in the past been enough 

 of aloofness on both sides, for which neither 

 side has been guiltless. Even where science 

 has not inherited the jealous exclusiveness of 

 a professional guild, the original investigator 

 had had temptation enough to remain aloof 

 from the public. If his discoveries were of 

 any practical use, others would advertise them 

 soon enough. If they merely opened wider 

 the portals of truth, the public was little inter- 

 ested, and there would be time enough for 

 its enlightenment when the ponderous mono- 

 graph became a sentence or a footnote in the 

 elementary text-books. Besides, it seemed so 

 hopeless to give the public what it ought to 

 have, and so worse than useless to give it 

 what it wanted. The whole mental view- 

 points were different. The scientist is cau- 

 tious, accurate and impersonal. He uses his 

 imagination, not to jump at conclusions, but 

 as a guide to experiment and investigation. 

 He hesitates to announce a discovery until he 

 has fiilly verified it, and then he limits him- 

 self strictly to the one step he has taken into 

 the Unknown, and avoids flights of fancy into 

 its speculative possibilities. If his knowledge 

 is fragmentary, he refuses to flU out its gaps, 

 and he is resolutely non-committal on what 

 he does not know. He cultivates an imper- 



1 Eead before the Pasadena Division of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, June 20, 1919. 



