32 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1359 



quainted with all. There are prohahly as many 

 psychologists in the United States as in the 

 rest of the world. The responsibility of each 

 of us is large. 



Why should we not unite to take over the 

 psychological work of the country and con- 

 duct it in the interest of psychology? The 

 railway men and the coal miners propose to 

 manage the railways and the mines; but these 

 are difficult undertakings, owing to the vast 

 number of men and the immense properties 

 that are involved. At present corporations, 

 trade unions and other associations of individ- 

 lials and interests are more potent forces in 

 the soeia;l order than congresses or legislatures. 

 Being unfortunately interested in the cost of 

 printing, I have some information on that 

 subject. The working printers by efficiently 

 oi^anized unions have been able to increase 

 their wages beyond those of professors. The 

 lemploying printers have in' turn organized a 

 United Typotheta do deal with the compositors 

 and the pressmen and more especially with the 

 publishers and the public, which latter they 

 have done effectively by increasing costs more 

 than 100 per cent. Now a publishers associa- 

 ition has been organized and there is also a 

 writers union. It is the poor ultimate con- 

 sumers who must take what is handed to them, 

 though they too are beginning to cooperate. 

 , As teachers or salaried experts psychologists 

 are employees, but very few scientific men are 

 employed primarily to undertake research. 

 There is no reason why college and university 

 |teachers should not unite, as public school 

 teachers are now doing, to increase their sal- 

 aries, to secure permanence of tenure or to 

 (improve the conditions under which they 

 jwork. Perhaps the first step in this direction 

 taken by a scientific society was a resolution 

 proposed by me and passed at the meeting of 

 the American Psychological Association in 

 1912 to the effect that it is inadvisable for 

 members to give summer or extension courses 

 at a lower rate than their regular salaries. 

 The association has also joined with the Amer- 

 ican Philosophical Association in a protest 

 against dismissing a member from a college on 

 account of the doctrines that he taught, and 



just now it is defining the qualifications for 

 psychological experts. The American Asso- 

 ciation of University Professors has been ex- 

 pressly organized to safeguard academic free- 

 dom and the rights of teachers in so far as 

 |that can be accomplished by committee re- 

 ports. 



( But such halting steps carry us only a short 

 way. In our psychological research work we 

 are not as a rule employees, but capitalists to 

 the extent of the ability that we have. It is 

 almost the only capital that can be used in 

 this way; its earnings represent an enormous 

 usury that accrues not to the individual but 

 to society. This should be its ultimate desti- 

 nation ; but if the capital is not increased and 

 used to the best advantage, then all suffer. 

 Research in any science is worth manyfold its 

 cost; if an organized democracy can learn this 

 fact and act accordingly the problem is solved. 

 In the meanwhile it is our business to see that 

 we reserve for research part of what we earn 

 and use it to increase our working capital, 

 namely, the nmnber of competent psychologists 

 and their ojjportunities to advance psychology 

 and to apply it in useful ways. 



Research and practise in psychology are not 

 essentially different from research and prac- 

 tise in other subjects, except in so far as the 

 inventions of the psychologist are not protected 

 by the patent office. Dr. P. G. Cottrell has 

 devised an admirable benefaction — if benefac- 

 tions are ever admirable — ^by presenting to a 

 corporation valuable patents, the proceeds to 

 be used for other researches. But in general 

 men earn their livings by teaching or apply- 

 ing science and advance it only as a sport. An 

 expert and popular surgeon can earn $50,000 

 a year by cutting out appendices, but if he 

 should by prolonged research discover a cure 

 for appendicitis, he would be paid only in the 

 fiat currency of honorary degrees or the like 

 and would lose his practise. A professor of 

 psychology can with the utmost difficulty in- 

 crease his salary by his published researches; 

 he can do so readily by becoming one of the 

 house carls of the president. 



Apart from using research as a kind of 

 lottery in which men may draw better uni- 



