98 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1335 



send it from our stock here in the city if you 

 are -willing to pay the extra cartage." On the 

 self-same day I received a notice from a com- 

 pany in Chicago saying, " the express com- 

 panies are unable to handle express from 

 Chicago to points in New York State." The 

 next day the same company sent me notice 

 that although they were preparing the order 

 for shipment by freight the railroads in 

 Chicago could not accept it at present and 

 they feared there would be considerable delay 

 in forwarding the order. These happen to be 

 coincidents, indicative not only of the present 

 condition of transportation but of much 

 deeper and more serious social and political 

 conditions. It is amazing and rather start- 

 ling to awake and find that in this country 

 of ours there is to-day but one agent of 

 transportation actually and fully functioning 

 — namely the United States Parcels Post. 

 Unquestionably these conditions are partly 

 due to the abnormal unrest in the minds of 

 the people but what is much more serious, 

 out of these conditions is bound to come 

 further unrest, so that the end is not now in 

 sight. In spite of one's faith in this beloved 

 country of ours and in spite of one's boldest 

 optimism one can not Took forward without 

 some fear and misgiving and our hope must 

 rest very largely in the ability and the genius 

 of our young men and women, especially in 

 those who are trained to think and to work 

 independently with the methods of research. 

 If scientists can solve the problems we have 

 touched upon they will not only contribute to 

 the material welfare of the country but will 

 also aid in allaying and finally settling the 

 social imrest of the people. The obligations 

 of the scientist in the upbuilding of peace are 

 great and opportunity is knocking at the door 

 of each one of us. 



THE CONTINUED NEED FOR RESEARCH IN PURE 

 SCIENCE 



The discussion, so far, has turned mainly 

 on what the world has long called, applied 

 research. It seems to me that the term ap- 

 plied research is a misnomer and that it 

 would be far more accurate and nearer the 



truth to designate it as research, applied. 

 That is to say, in the solution of any problem 

 by scientific investigation, no matter in what 

 direction it may eventually tend, there must 

 first be research, pure and intensive, accurate 

 and often prolonged, followed if you please 

 by an application of the principles so dis- 

 covered. Thus we have had and must have 

 in greater measure in the future, as I have 

 already tried to point out, research, the re- 

 sultant principles of which may be applied to 

 the solution of economic problems affecting 

 the public welfare. On the other hand, there 

 is among men such a thing as research for 

 the pure love of it. The characteristics, how- 

 ever, of such research do not lie in the method 

 of work but rather in the spirit of the man 

 doing it. The intensity of the work, the 

 broadness of it, and the accuracy of it, do not 

 differ one whit from the research work that 

 may come to have an economic application. 

 The differences between the two are psycho- 

 logical — attributes of the man. One investi- 

 gator is absorbed in the beauty and sublimity 

 of truth and in its discovery without any 

 thought of aiding humanity while the other 

 carries on his research with the hope that he 

 may not only discover truth but that it may 

 be of practical benefit to the hmnan race. 

 But these subtle distinctions if they really 

 exist are of no consequence. What I wish to 

 emphasize is, that work in pure science con- 

 stitutes after all the most fundamental kind 

 of research for humanity because it touches 

 the spirit and the soul of mankind and ever- 

 lastingly ennobles the human race. Pure 

 research in science or in the humanities has 

 been and still is the basis for all intellectual 

 and moral progress and advance in enlighten- 

 ment among all races and all peoples. And 

 at this critical stage of civilization the spir- 

 itual force of this kind of intellectual activity 

 needs new emphasis and added stress. The 

 spirit of the pure scientist is the spirit that 

 we desire to see pervade all humanity and 

 all of the activities of humanity. It is a 

 spirit of truth and honesty that tends to 

 banish superstition, narrowness, greed, selfish- 

 ness, and provincialism and to establish char- 



