252 
ress; c’est le premier pas qui coute! And in this 
connection attention may be called to a heartening 
Executive Order of President Wilson’s, dated May 
11, 1918, which includes the following: 
The National Research Council was organized in 
1916 at the request of the President by the Na- 
tional Academy of Sciences, under its congres- 
sional charter, as a measure of national prepared- 
ness. The work accomplished by the council in 
organizing research and in securing cooperation of 
military and civilian agencies in the solution of 
military problems demonstrates its capacity for 
larger service. The National Academy of Sciences 
is therefore requested to perpetuate the National 
Research Council, the duties of which shall be as 
follows: 
In general, to stimulate research in mathemat- 
ieal, physical and biological sciences, and in the 
application of these sciences to engineering, agri- 
culture, medicine and other useful arts... . 
To survey the larger possibilities of science, to 
formulate comprehensive projects of research, and 
to develop effective means of utilizing the scien- 
tific and technical resources of the country for 
dealing with these projects. 
To promote cooperation in research, at home 
and abroad, in order to secure concentration of 
effort, minimize duplication, and stimulate prog- 
ress; but in all cooperative undertakings to give 
encouragement to individual initiative, as funda- 
mentally important to the advancement of sci- 
ence.... 
The international character thus given to the 
National Research Council as a public, permanent 
institution will not escape notice. Are we not 
justified in feeling that we have hitched our wagon 
to the proper star? At any rate, obliged to live 
on corn meal and confidence, some of us especially 
value the latter! 
The movement toward a Washington location 
for that great International Institute for the his- 
tory of science proposed by Dr. George Sarton and 
others (and coveted as an associate by the Patent 
Office) also appears here to await a more favorable 
moment for publie attention—although the resolu- 
tions upon this subject adopted by the Patent 
Office Society have already been strongly seconded 
by the Washington Academy of Sciences, and the 
American Society of Civil Engineers, as well as by 
several of the powerful scientific bodies local to 
this city. At a suitable moment, this project may 
be again pressed, although leadership therein is 
understood to devolve upon Dr. Sarton... . 
How intrinsically absurd must appear the com- 
plete duplication, within each nation, of all those 
facilities and technical qualifications prerequisite 
to the proper determination of such purely re- 
search questions as operativeness, and novelty of 
conception! Surely the possible economy in 
search-costs alone must appeal more and more 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Von. XLVIIT. No. 1236 
strongly not only to the inventors, who pay these 
particular bills, but to that increasing multitude 
now fortunately interested in the proposals looking 
toward a league of nations—or, at least, of demo- 
eratic states! How much better the work of both 
could be done if the Canadian Patent Office and 
that of the United States could be coordinated at 
once, with united resources of men and means! 
Salary resolutions, calling attention to the fact 
(ascertained by a questionnaire sanctioned by 
Commissioner Newton) that the great numbers of 
men annually leaving the office commonly double 
their incomes within three years; to the lack of 
satisfactory recruits, or of means for retaining 
properly qualified men; to the rapid consequent 
rate of resignation even for non-military employ- 
ment; and to the corresponding jeopardy of in- 
ventor’s rights entrusted to unqualified and imex- 
perienced men, were duly approved by the execu- 
tive committee of the Patent Office Society, but 
have been withheld from publicity—apparently 
because of misgivings lest shouting while cannon 
roar may be misunderstood—if it happens to be 
noticed at all! 
Meager as they are, the assets of the society 
have proved sufficient to enable it—meeting as it 
does in the Patent Office Building—to purchase a 
projection apparatus adapted for motion pictures, 
of which notable use has already been made in 
showing the development and practise of particular 
arts; and also to tempt it, under the active lead- 
ership of President Coulston, into an essay at the 
publication of the mentioned Journal. For the 
first year, the price of this is fixed at $2.50, and 
its columns are intended to contain not only ex- 
positions of the present somewhat complicated 
practise, but also material deemed to deserve 
further consideration whenever the day for real 
patent reform shall dawn. These activities, for 
which some manuscripts are already at hand, may, 
of course, pave the way to a still wider field of 
usefulness: for in scientific and technical fields, as 
well as in legal, the possibility of suitable publica- 
tion of historical studies must, of course, be ac- 
counted a legitimate incentive to study. 
Possibly indeed any society centering in a goy- 
ernment office must consider itself limited forever 
to an opportunist policy, making real advances, 
other than those of self improvement, only when 
the breath of a very genuine and generous official 
approval—undisturbed by the anxieties of a period 
of war—shall accord, during some constructive 
period, with a current of awakened public interest. 
Yet it is not without confidence that our society 
