330 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1422 



had long protested that my name should not be 

 given to any endowment of anything that I 

 might ever make ; I protested against the use of 

 it on thife laboratory building; and the argu- 

 ments of members of the Board and other 

 friends, including the Director of the Labora- 

 tory himself, failed to move me in this particu- 

 lar — until I found that the vital member of my 

 own household, who had for half a lifetime 

 helped toward this opportunity, was in league 

 with these people — then I surrendered. And I 

 am ready now to confess to one comfort in see- 

 ing my name chiseled over the chief portal : it 

 ought to tend toward discouraging the public 

 from longer trying to impose on my name a 

 final S and a middle initial ! 



As to the material contributions toward the 

 building, they are made with utter gladness, 

 with the knowledge that here shall develop a 

 great center of edvication and resareh that will 

 give the start and found the careers of many of 

 the scholars and super-engineers of the future 

 — and make life easier and more joyful, as well 

 as more worth living, to vast numbers of people 

 — for the men who are gi-aduated here will carry 

 the torch to others, and they to still others, on 

 through an endless succession. Certainly no 

 gift of mine already made, or that shall here- 

 after be made here, can possibly be a measure 

 of my faith in this institution, and I have not 

 for years had any official connection with it. 

 My faith in it is greater than if I had a hand 

 in its management. 



Finally now, and in behalf of the donors and 

 all the friends who have encouraged this con- 

 summation — those who have hoped and prayed 

 for it; those who have planned and designed it 

 and watched its growth; and those who have 

 devised and fm-nished the sinews of construc- 

 tion that have made its walls arise into being — ■ 

 in behalf of all these and in their name, I com- 

 mend and present this Laboratory of Physics — ■ 

 the last and best word in a modern workshop 

 of nature's philosophy, to this corporation, and 

 to you. Dr. MillLkan, its Director — to you, Sir, 

 who embody in yoiu' person the new spiritual 

 and intellectual gift that comes with the Labora- 

 tory. And you ai'e the hope and sure promise 

 of the future ! 



ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE OF THE NOR- 

 MAN BRIDGE LABORATORY OF PHYSICS 



In accepting in the name of American physics 

 this beautiful and well-appointed laboratory, 

 I wish first to express on behalf of my col- 

 leagues and myself the appreciation and grati- 

 tude which we feel because of the opportunity 

 which you, Mr. Fleming, and you. Dr. Bridge, 

 have jointly opened up to us, not only of de- 

 voting ourselves to the intensive pursuit of the 

 science which we love, but also of assisting in 

 the solution of the fascinating and vitally im- 

 portant problems which the extraordinary de- 

 velopments in physics during the past two de- 

 cades have pushed to the forefront of the 

 world's needs to-day. 



In the second place, I wish to accept this 

 gift on behalf of the California Institute of 

 Technology, with which I now have the honor 

 to be connected, and to express its gratitude 

 for the opportunity which is thus afforded it 

 of taking another long stride forward toward 

 the realization of the ideal which the far- 

 visioned men who constitute the Board of 

 Trustees have had from the beginning — an 

 ideal not very common in American educa,- 

 tional institutions, an ideal not of large growth 

 in numbers, nor of the extension of the field 

 of study over a large range of subjects, but 

 rather the ideal of doing work of superlative 

 quality in the chosen and relatively limited 

 field of the Institute's activities — the cultiva- 

 tion of the mathematical and physical sciences 

 and their applications. 



In the third place, I wish to accept this gift 

 on behalf of all those who, like myself, be- 

 lieve that the private educational institution 

 still has a very vital role to play in the de- 

 velopment of American civilization. I am no 

 opponent of state education. From the com- 

 mon school up it represents one of America's 

 most important contributions to modern life, 

 and that contribution should be greater in the 

 future than it has been in the past. But state- 

 education is not all that is needed in this coun- 

 trj'. It can do something but not everything. 

 Indeed, one of the most dangerous tendencies 

 which confronts America to-day is the appar- 

 ently growing tendency of her people to get 



