34 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1306 



public support but subject soraetimes to scorn 

 and even persecution but more often to an 

 indifference not reaching tbe level of con- 

 tempt. By slow degrees, however, it began 

 to dawn upon the public that the investiga- 

 tions of these dreamers really had some sig- 

 nificance for the practical conduct of life. 

 Very gradually at first, but with an accele- 

 rated velocity as time went on, the scientist 

 came to be recognized as a useful member of 

 society although even yet he seems too often 

 regarded in the light of a sort of "medicine 

 man " who can be called upon to work 

 magical incantations in times of need or peril 

 or as a magician who, by some sort of leger- 

 demain, can accomplish the seemingly im- 

 possible. 



Along with this growing recognition of the 

 'economic and commercial value of its results, 

 ■scientific research began in time to be re- 

 garded more and more as a public function 

 :and to be more or less adequately supported, 

 •either by private endowment or notably by 

 -governmental action. The latter has been 

 especially the case with agricultural research. 

 I need not rehearse to this audience the 

 familiar story, beginning with the foundation 

 of the first public experiment station at 

 Moeckem in 1852, the growth of the Eu- 

 ropean experiment stations, the founding of 

 the early American stations by state action, 

 the enactment of the Hatch and Adams Acts, 

 the increasing appropriations by the states 

 and the enormous growth of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. For agricultural 

 research it has been a period of expansion and 

 organization upon an unprecedented scale 

 and it is scarcely to be wondered at that the 

 real nature of the end aimed at was some- 

 times lost sight of in the consideration of the 

 means by which it was to be reached nor that 

 the proper freedom of research should have 

 been in some degree menaced, on the one 

 hand by bureaucratic administration and on 

 the other by the pressure for immediately use- 

 ful results. 



It is unnecessary to remind you that this 

 tendency gave rise to a wholesome reaction. 

 For several years it appeared necessary to 

 stress the fundamental significance of the in- 



itiative and independence of the individual 

 investigator but by the time the United States 

 entered the war it may be said that this view 

 had received fairly general recognition and 

 there was perhaps a tendency to excessive 

 individualism and a certain lack of coordina- 

 tion and cooperation in agricultural research. 



"With our entry into the war began a new era 

 in scientific activity as well as in world poli- 

 tics. Urgent war needs led to a concentration 

 of scientific effort upon special problems of the 

 most varied character and to a degree of co- 

 operation and coordination imtil then un- 

 known. The results were almost spectacular 

 and as a natural consequence there has come 

 a revival of interest in cooperative work and 

 the demand for better organization of re- 

 search which has already been referred to. 

 Probably the most conspicuous as well as the 

 most familiar example of this is found in the 

 statement made by The Hon. Elihu Eoot be- 

 fore the Advisory Committee on Industrial 

 Research of the National Research Council.^ 

 He says: 



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 tiem; that the difference be- 

 tween a mob and an army does not depend upon 

 oeoupafcion or purpose but upon human nature; 

 that the effective power of a great number of sci- 

 entific men may be increased by organization just 

 as the effective power of a great number of labor- 

 ers may be increased by military discipline. 



All other (than very great) minds need to be 

 guided away from the useless and towards the use- 

 ful. That can be done only by the application of 

 scientific method to science itself through the 

 purely scientific process of organizing effort. 



It remains to be seen whether peoples thoroughly 

 imbued with the ideas and accustomed to the tra- 

 ditions of separate private initiative are capable of 

 organizing scientific research for practical ends as 

 effectively as an autocratic government giving di- 

 rection to a, docile and submissive people. 



Similarly Whetzel' writes: 



2 SciENOE, November 29, 1919. 

 8 Science, July 18, 1919. 



