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SCIENCE 



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



can be ranked in that class, however. The 

 majority of investigators must be content to 

 be journeymen rather than master builders 

 on the edifice of science and the rate of prog- 

 ress of the structure depends very largely on 

 the persistent, conscientious work of the ordi- 

 nary investigator. The advance of science as 

 a whole is, after all, a rather prosaic affair, 

 including a vast amount of drudgery and 

 requiring patient " plugging " rather than 



Furthermore, the problems of more imme- 

 diate importance to mankind are often the 

 less fundamental ones or those near the 

 middle of the series. It is for the more super- 

 ficial or practical problems and for the ordi- 

 nary investigator that organized cooperation 

 seems most promising. It is investigators of 

 this type, possessing varying degrees of initia- 

 tive and inspiration, who can profit most 

 largely by mutual association, particularly in 

 connection with the more superficial prob- 

 lems, while it is in this type of investigation 

 that the initiative and inspiration of the in- 

 dividual is at once most significant and most 

 in danger of being suppressed. They, more 

 than the genius, need the inspiration and 

 stimulus to initiative which comes from close 

 contact with their fellow workers. 



Another class of problems in which co- 

 operation seems especially called for are those 

 requiring the application of diverse branches 

 of science. Such was notably true of many 

 war problems and is perhaps particularly the 

 case with the larger agricultural problems of 

 a more or less practical nature — especially 

 regional problems such as the development of 

 farming in the semi-arid regions, the study 

 of plant diseases or, in a different field, such 

 questions as sewage disjiosal. 



In brief the teaching of our war experi- 

 ences, as I see it, is that our rate of future 

 scientific progress will depend, not exclusively 

 upon cooperation on the one hand nor upon 

 individualism on the other but upon a wise 

 combination and adjustment of the two in 

 varying proportion according to the nature of 

 the problem attacked and the abilities of the 

 investigators concerned. 



Granting the truth of this view, a second 



fundamental question is, " How can coopera- 

 tive effort, where desirable, be most efficiently 

 organized ? " 



Substantially three things are to be effected. 

 First, that effort shall be directed to really 

 significant and fundamental problems. The 

 issues of civilization are too vast for us to 

 lapse into dilettanteism. Second, that the 

 methods employed shall be soimd, so that 

 effort may not be frittered away in empirical 

 experiments leading nowhere. Third, to 

 secure that stimulus to zeal and persistence 

 which comes from association in a common 

 cause. 



How can these objects be realized? How 

 can we gain the advantages of association 

 and cooperation without sacrificing that init- 

 iative of the individual upon which, in the 

 last analysis, the efficiency of even practical 

 research depends. I think we should all agree 

 that this can not be effected by any such 

 bureaucratic or even military organization as 

 would seem to be contemplated by the words 

 of some writers — notably by Mr. Hoot in the 

 passages which I have quoted. Let me re- 

 peat a single phrase: 



That the effective power of a great number of 

 scientific men may be increased by organization just 

 as the effective power of a great number of laborers 

 may be increased by military discipline. 



Such expressions as these, like a certain 

 notorious report on academic efficiency, if 

 taken at their face value, betray an almost 

 ludicrous misconception of the conditions of 

 productive scientific activity and are partic- 

 ularly surprising in a man of Mr. Roofs 

 breadth of view, who in the same statement 

 has shown so clear an appreciation of the 

 value of abstract research. Organization of 

 this sort may serve for a works laboratory 

 doing routine control work or perhaps for the 

 law offices of a great firm but we can not 

 stimulate scientific investigation by stran- 

 gling personal initiative. The question is 

 how investigation can be coordinated without 

 destroying the individuality of the investi- 

 gator. This can not be done by laying down 

 hard and fast plans involving any sort of 

 factory system of division of labor. 



