SEPTEMBER 6, 1918] 
are abruptedly snatched from the peaceful- 
ness of their quiet laboratories to tumult of 
the very battle-field itself, a plea for 
greater recognition in our membership of 
those whose interests lie in the practical 
side of science and a summons to a broader 
outlook in that field of enquiry may be per- 
mitted. 
It is of course not forgotten that discov- 
eries must always precede invention and 
that the smallest triumph in pure science 
may have unexpected and far-reaching re- 
sults, so that the devoted investigator will 
always with us remain an honored and ap- 
preciated member. But in a world where 
unhappiness, injustice and distress are con- 
stantly in evidence, where conflict between 
classes is always on the point of breaking 
out, and where inefficiency and waste are 
everywhere, what greater service can the 
altruistic scientist do than to reduce the 
causes of the apparent sources of misery to 
known terms so that there may be some 
hope of reducing their effect if not of 
shutting them out altogether. The great 
Teacher promised that the poor we should 
always have with us. But it is not too much 
to look forward to that, through the more 
equable distribution of wealth, through 
better ways of fitting workmen to their 
tasks, through approved methods of reform- 
ing misdemeanants and of punishing crimi- 
nals, we may greatly diminish the number 
of the poor. Why should not some of the 
researches of the society be made in the 
field of sociology, since we now honor with 
membership those who have studied prac- 
tical problems in psychology. Why not in 
industries as well as in engineering? 
Three fields, and doubtless there are 
others equally important, have suggested 
themselves to my mind as belonging to the 
eategory that I have tried to suggest: that 
of labor efficiency, that of industrial pro- 
duction, that of technical education. 
SCIENCE 
527 
The question of the efficiency and control 
of labor has always been perplexing to engi- 
neers and generally to employers. At the 
close of this present war, if the many pre- 
dictions now being made have any basis 
whatever, the right answer to the labor 
problem must be found or else the whole 
world will be again bathed in blood in a 
still fiercer conflict, involving the very right 
to live, between employer and employee. 
It is predicted, as you know, not merely 
that all autocratic government will disap- 
pear, but also that labor will ‘‘come into its 
own,’’ whatever that means. Recent hap- 
penings in Russia have not given evidence 
of the success of a government when the 
governors are narrowminded, unused to the 
consideration of large problems and unable 
to think of more than the present. Why 
should not this Society of Sigma Xi investi- 
gate some of the labor problems, as yet un- 
solved,.in the hope of so definitely fixing 
fundamental laws that their permanence 
and binding character would be understood 
and perhaps made the basis of understand- 
ings otherwise impossible. 
There would be many advantages in the 
trained scientific mind coming to the con- 
sideration of such a question as ‘‘Can a 
woman do the same amount of physical 
work as a man?’’ and settling it without 
reference to sentiment or public clamor. 
Some years ago, Mr. Frederick W. Taylor 
undertook to develop a body of scientific 
law that should govern the organization and 
operation of any industry and he gave to 
his studies the appropriate term, ‘‘Scien- 
tific Management,’’ because, he said, such 
control is distinctively scientific in that it 
aims to correlate and to systematize all the 
best of modern developments in factory ad- 
ministration and to push development 
further in accordance with the principles 
discovered. It rests on laws and principles 
rather than on policies. 
