44 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 915 



be seen by all concerned that the sporadic 

 elective is the greatest obstacle in the way 

 of raising the salary of the man who gives 

 it, as well as that of all his colleagues. For 

 the per capita cost of such a course is nearly 

 always very high, and can come from no- 

 where except the total available salary 

 fund. The university must maintain many 

 small classes in its advanced work. A class 

 of one may fully justify itself to the uni- 

 versity world and to the state which pays 

 for it. But it is the interest, as well as the 

 duty, of all concerned to see that every 

 small class shall so jiistify itself. 



3. Members of the graduate faculty 

 should resist the temptation to provide 

 equipment for research over wide ranges 

 of their subjects. Instead of this, the pro- 

 fessor who conducts research should plan 

 a program of studies within which he and 

 his students for a period of years shall 

 work, and upon which his appropriations 

 for graduate work shall be concentrated. 

 No hard and fast line of definition can be 

 drawn between these two policies. The 

 broad difference between them is clear. 

 Only the richest of our universities can do 

 anything of quality in the way of research 

 if the first policy is followed, and even in 

 those cases there must be a great and un- 

 necessary waste. On the other hand, any 

 one of a score or more of our universities 

 can successfully carry out the second pol- 

 icy. Let me give two out of many possible 

 illustrative cases. Ten years ago a young 

 scholar found himself in a university whose 

 library was wholly inadequate for his stud- 

 ies. In presence of this situation he se- 

 lected with deliberate care a program which 

 he thought the university would be able to 

 support. The trustees met his plan with 

 warm approval. The total amount appro- 

 priated in the ten years was not great, but 

 it proved sufficient for the purpose, for it 

 enabled the man to write the best book 



within his special field, and incidentally it 

 enabled him to accumulate the best work- 

 ing library for that field in the country, 

 with two exceptions. The other case pre- 

 sents still more striking proof of the effec- 

 tiveness of this policy, chiefly because it 

 has been carried on for a longer time. In 

 this case the man began twenty years ago. 

 Within that time he and his advanced stu- 

 dents have worked along the lines of two 

 programs. He has had many graduate 

 students, including a considerable number 

 who have taken the doctor's degree under 

 his direction. In both the special fields re- 

 ferred to he is recognized as the first au- 

 thority in the world. He has accumulated 

 for his work^ so he states to me, the best 

 library in the world. Yet the entire cost of 

 this special library and of his laboratory 

 equipment would be well within the means 

 of any standard university in the country. 

 If the same man had been led astray in the 

 outset into browsing about over his in- 

 teresting field, the whole of his splendid 

 achievements would have been impossible. 



Before I leave the subject of research, I 

 wish to say that it is a great waste of re- 

 sources to force the entire faculty into this 

 form of work. Let each man do what he 

 cares most for and can do best. If a man 

 can write good prose or good poetry, or can 

 train any of his students to do so, let us 

 preserve that man and his work as pre- 

 cious, and not spoil all with the demand 

 for orthodox doctors' theses. If a man 

 finds out how to train freshmen in Eng- 

 lish composition, or how to develop a finer 

 practise of honor among college men, let 

 us count these achievements worth as much 

 as if he had written a thesis upon what 

 some one did with the same problems in 

 England a hundred years ago. 



4. The regents or trustees should be on 

 guard against the constant temptation to 

 multiply departments, schools and colleges 



