Septembee 26, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



297 



The universities can not possibly fulfill 

 their function of selecting and developing 

 scientific men of outstanding ability unless 

 they create within themselves the atmos- 

 phere of scientific research. The creation 

 of reseaTch men may not be the prime 

 function of all universities but it should 

 certainly be the prime function of some 

 of them. One of the most urgent needs 

 then of America to-day is for the develop- 

 ment in connection with five or six Ameri- 

 can universities of great research insti- 

 tutes in the natural sciences, such as do 

 not exist at all to-day, institutes in which 

 there will be as many able investigators 

 devoting two thirds of their time and 

 energy to research as are now found in the 

 detached research institutions like those of 

 the Carnegie Institution and the Rocke- 

 feller Institute for Medical Research, or 

 the research laboratories of the "Western 

 Electric, General Electric and the West- 

 inghouse companies. It is believed that 

 such institutes in connection with Ameri- 

 can universities, where they will be freed 

 from the limitations of industrial labora- 

 tories, divorced from the narrowing influ- 

 ences of detached research institutions, so 

 placed that the research atmosphere which 

 they create can be breathed by the most 

 talented youths who pass through our 

 American educational system, will exert a 

 very marked influence upon the develop- 

 ment of preeminent scientific men in 

 America and upon making this country a 

 center of the world's scientific life and 

 progress. How can such institutions be 

 created? Perhaps by government initia- 

 tive. But if we may argue from the past 

 the development is likely to come about in 

 America in another way. We have de- 

 veloped in the United States a highly patri- 

 otic and highly intelligent public sentiment 

 which stimulates men of wealth and power 

 to devote themselves and their fortunes to 



great public enterprises. No country in 

 the world has developed such groups of 

 private individuals who hold their talents 

 and their wealth as public trusts. Most 

 of our great advances in the past have been 

 through private initiative, and I suspect 

 Mr. Blihu Root was as usual a wise coun- 

 selor when he said recently in substance, 

 "If we are going to conserve the finest ele- 

 ments in Anglo-Saxon civilization, we 

 must conserve the method of free private 

 initiative and not depend primarily upon 

 government aid." The great opportunity 

 in science then for the man who wishes to 

 invest his funds where they will count most 

 for his country and his race lies in the en- 

 dowment of research chairs, or better semi- 

 research chairs, in a few suitably chosen 

 educational institutions. Such monu- 

 ments ought to be infinitely more attrac- 

 tive than those of brick and stone. Such 

 a chair endowed in such a way as to at- 

 tract the ablest men whom we develop and 

 filled continuously by fertile men will 

 yield bigger returns to the donor and to 

 the world than any other investment 

 which can be made. Therein lies the great- 

 est opportunity which America offers to 

 the philanthropist to-day. 



If some such program as I have outlined 

 for producing scientific men and for 

 creating centers of research in connection 

 with a few American universities can be 

 adopted in the United States, and I think 

 it will be, then in a very few years we 

 shall be in a new place as a scientific nation 

 and shall see men coming from the ends of 

 the earth to catch the inspiration of our 

 leaders and to share in the results which 

 have come from our developments in sci- 

 ence. If we fail to seize these opportuni- 

 ties then the scepter will pass from us and 

 go to those who are better qualified to 

 wield it. R. A. Millikan 



Univeesitt op Chicago 



