Maech 17, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



283 



fact assembling, and fact analysis is the pre- 

 requisite for fact statements, and it is fact 

 statements alone that are entitled to the serious 

 consideration of those whose judgment and 

 decision affects the present or future welfare 

 of those concerned in the results of the fore- 

 casting process. 



The organization of knowledge is concerned 

 with the interpretation of the phenomena of 

 every-day experience and not with a theory 

 applied to their interpretation, indifferent to 

 the facts or the nature of the facts considered. 

 This conclusion is admirably set forth by Sir 

 William Hamilton in the words that "Mathe- 

 matics often afford us no assistance either in 

 conquering the difficulties or in avoiding 

 the dangers which we encounter in the 

 great field of probabilities in which we live." 

 It is, therefore, mere phraseology to say that 

 "The leading characteristic of mathematics is 

 that it deals with properties and ideas which 

 are applicable to things just because they are 

 things and apart from any particular feelings, 

 emotions, or sensations in any way connected 

 with them." (Whitehead). It is precisely 

 the truth that mathematics deals with 

 truth in the abstract that it is so largely in- 

 applicable to questions in which the very best 

 judgment can only represent an approxima- 

 tion to the ideal but nevertheless workable 

 truth. Or, as Sir William Hamilton remarks, 

 "Of observation, experiment, induction, ana- 

 logy the mathematician knows nothing," yet 

 it is of all these that organized knowledge 

 must take cognizance if it is to serve the use- 

 ful purpose of advancing the truth by which 

 men live. 



I can not for the present enlarge upon this 

 view, recalling, however, the previovisly quoted 

 remark of Professor David Starr Jordan that 

 "The final test of the truth is its livableness, " 

 the degree to which we may trust our lives 

 to it." No theory of probability, however 

 useful in perfecting contingency calculations, 

 can be safely applied to the countless questions 

 upon which facts and mere facts alone will 

 permit of a judg-ment "to which we may trust 

 our lives." No mathematical figments can make 

 up for deficiencies in knowledge of fimda- 

 mental truth. 



Limitations of space preclude an adequate 

 discussion of the methods pursued in the or- 

 ganization of the library and information 

 service of my office. The methods of organ- 

 izing knowledge must necessarily vary in detail 

 with the nature of the subject matter, but in 

 my own experience of thirty years I have found 

 no difficulty whatever in gaining a reasonable 

 degree of control over a wide range of essen- 

 tially different sets of facts and data, systemat- 

 ically arranged upon the principles of easy 

 accessibility, completeness of experience as to 

 time and place and reasonable economy in 

 expense. All general information in my office 

 other than such as is represented by books and 

 pamphlets is first filed under a uniform en- 

 velop system arranged, however, in precisely 

 the same manner as the books and pamphlets 

 on the subject index plan. 



The classification adopted rests upon the 

 conception that the basis of modern progress 

 is essentially economic, but the term eco- 

 nomics is used in the broadest sense and made 

 to include social and allied sciences and activi- 

 ties. The first division of organized knowl- 

 edge in use in my office bears, therefore, the 

 title "Economics." Under the second division 

 is comprehended "Statistics and Information"; 

 this section is sub-divided into United States 

 and Foreign Countries. Both of these sections 

 are sub-divided into about thirty minor divi- 

 sions, which readily admit of being enlarged, 

 if occasion should require; but I have found it 

 more advantageous to avoid too many minor 

 sub-divisions, so as to make the indexing of 

 the information as automatic as possible. The 

 fourth section is entitled "Labor and Industry," 

 being practically technological, having to do 

 with all industrial processes, labor conditions, 

 occupational diseases, occupational accidents, 

 etc. The fifth section bears the title "Public 

 Health," but this is limited to the United States, 

 simply as a matter of convenience, for in the 

 general statistical information section public 

 health is Sub-section 8, including, of course, 

 vital statistics. The sixth and last section 

 bears the general title "Science, Medicine and 

 Research," including a vast range of more or 

 less allied subject matters. 



Throughout "information" consists chiefly of 



