February 20, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



177 



evolution, or of tlie intellectual value of such 

 a contribution to knowledge. The representa- 

 tive of a people educated in the value of geo- 

 logic science would, by such an exhibition of 

 ignorance, discredit himself in the eyes of 

 his constituents. 



Functions in a Democracy. — Our govern- 

 ment, however, is not an all-wise benevolent 

 autocracy but is democratic in plan and 

 intent and suffers from certain well-known 

 disadvantages from which no democracy has 

 yet been free. The wishes of the politically 

 active majority control and these wishes may 

 or may not coincide with those of the wisest 

 and most enlightened of the citizens. The 

 funds for government work in science must 

 be granted by Congress and the vote of each 

 congressman is determined by the real or sup- 

 posed desires of his constituents. A national 

 scientific bureau, if it is to survive, must 

 have popular support, and to obtain and hold 

 such support it must do at least some work 

 that the majority of the people can under- 

 stand or can recognize as being worth the 

 doing. Here evidently compromise with sci- 

 entific ideals is necessary. Something must 

 be sacrificed in order that something can be 

 done. Such concessions and compromises are 

 inseparable from democratic government and 

 the scientific man of high ideals who is un- 

 able to recognize this fact wiU inevitably fail 

 as a director of the scientific work of a gov- 

 ernment bureau. Such a man is likely to in- 

 sist that no concessions are necessary and 

 that the public will support science that is 

 not interesting to it or from which it can see 

 no immediate resulting material benefit. One 

 very eminent geologist with whom I was once 

 conversing held this view. He said that he 

 had always found that he could go before a 

 legislative body and secure appropriations for 

 scientific research by being absolutely frank 

 and making no attempt to show that the 

 results of the work would be what the average 

 man would term " useful " within the imme- 

 diate future. His confidence was possibly 

 well grounded, but I am inclined to think 

 that the success gained by him was rather a 

 tribute to his earnest eloquence and winning 



personality than a proof that the people are 

 yet ready to contribute their taxes to the suj)- 

 port of investigations that, so far as they can 

 see, are neither useful nor interesting. 



Character of Compromises. — Lest it be sup- 

 posed that I am advocating the surrender of 

 the high ideals of science to the political bus- 

 iness of vote-getting I hasten to point out 

 that surrender and compromise are not synon- 

 ymous and may he very far apart. Some com- 

 promise there must be, but in my opinion the 

 most delicate and critical problem in the 

 direction of a national scientific bureau is to 

 determine the nature and extent of this com- 

 promise so as to obtain the largest and stead- 

 iest support for real research with the least 

 sacrifice. Complete surrender to popularity 

 may mean large initial support, but is sure to 

 be followed by deterioration in the spirit of 

 the organization and in the quality of its 

 work, by loss of scientific prestige, and by 

 final bankruptcy even in that popular favor 

 which had been so seduloiisly cultivated. 



The extent to which concessions must be 

 made will depend largely of course on the 

 general level of intelligence of the people and 

 upon the degree to which the less intelligent 

 are influenced through the press and other 

 channels by those who are able to appreciate 

 the value of science. The more enlightened 

 ' the people the more general and permanent 

 will be their support of science. 



Importance of Popular Education in Geol- 

 ogy. — This leads us to the consideration of 

 what I believe to be one of the most important 

 of the functions of a government scientific 

 bureau, namely, education. Of all forms of 

 concession, if indeed it is really a concession, 

 this is the least objectionable and most fruit- 

 ful. Its results are constructive and cumula- 

 tive. It is not, like other concessions to 

 popidarity, corrosive of the scientific spirit of 

 an organization and in so far as it calls for 

 clear thinking and attractive presentation on 

 the part of those puting it into practise as 

 well as the ability to grasp and expound es- 

 sentials, its educational effect may be sub- 

 jective as well as objective. Whatever may 

 be true of other sciences, geologists in this 



