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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX, No. 1261 



in kind. It calls for a mobilization — which is 

 a planned cooperation — of all the valuable and 

 worthy activities of the nation. And just such 

 a mobilization was proceeding with ever-in- 

 creasing strides in this country, until the news 

 of the present armistice announced the need 

 for stiU further changes of detail. Let us 

 hope that the spirit of planned activity, 

 aroused from the magic lamp of human nature 

 by the rubbing of a martial hand, may not be 

 sent to rest with the return of peace. The civ- 

 ilized world has found again that the greatest 

 himian pleasures and satisfactions may come 

 from the giving of money and goods and heart- 

 beats and even the life-blood of many individ- 

 uals, iall for the furthering of the same worthy 

 cause. It has found that national and world 

 mobilization are the means whereby great 

 works may be rapidly achieved, it has found 

 that cooperation between individuals and be- 

 tween states is the means whereby the pleas- 

 ures of the accomplishment of such works are 

 to be most quickly attained. In order that we 

 and those who follow us may enjoy these great 

 pleasures of accomplishment, let us strive to 

 keep the spirit of cooperation alive and ag- 

 gressively aictive against the false demons of 

 the more primitive and more frequently pre- 

 vailing forms of selfishness, and let us move 

 forward, with this spirit in our hearts, into the 

 era that is now dawning. 



The burden of my words to you this after- 

 noon will be to ask you to pass, for a few min- 

 utes, out of the work-.a-day world of selfish 

 struggles for " credit " or " priority " in scien- 

 tific literature, or for salary increase and the 

 like of that, out of the world of minute detail 

 with its microscope lenses and balance pans, 

 and to dwell for a little while on some of the 

 larger possibilities and opportunities that lie 

 before botanical science at this time. And I 

 shall wish to emphasize the idea that, for a 

 goodly number of us, at any rate, these possi- 

 bilities and opportunities are tasks and re- 

 sponsibilities that really and truly need to be 

 met. 



It is well first to realize that those who de- 

 vote their lives to science have peculiar re- 

 sponsibilities. The body of human knowledge 



has grown apace and constitutes our most 

 cherished possession. It alone can be handed 

 on to the coming generations; other human 

 achievements wear out and disintegrate with 

 time, while knowledge lasts and grows and in- 

 creases in value as our race matures. What- 

 ever may be your idea of the final good of 

 human life, whether it be to glorify Grod or 

 wallop the devil, to give ourselves pleasure in 

 the present or in the future, or to give to com- 

 ing generations a better chance to live as they 

 will wish to live-^no matter at what particular 

 angle you may view these academic questions 

 of ultimate results, you will surely agree that 

 the preservation of real knowledge is one of 

 our responsibilities. We and our posterity will 

 have great need for all the knowledge that is 

 available, to-morrow and the day after, and 

 one of our world responsibilities is clearly to 

 see that knowledge once gained shall not be 

 lost. 



But this is not all. It is not sufficient for a 

 healthy himian being to act merely as a vestal, 

 simply to keep a torch burning that was 

 kindled by others. It is our instinct to in- 

 crease the body of science as well as to pre- 

 serve what has been accomplished, and instinct 

 appears to accord with reason here, for if 

 knowledge is valuable it should be increased as 

 rapidly as possible. This is, then, another of 

 our world-responsibilities. 



To preserve for the future all that is 

 known of ourselves and of the universe about 

 us, to make this knowledge ever more readily 

 available, and to add to the store as we work 

 it over and hand it on to others, these seem to 

 be the prime responsibilities of human beings, 

 as distinguished from other organisms. N'ow, 

 if these things are to be done there is no group 

 of society so fitted to do them as is the group 

 of scientists; upon them has fallen the mantle 

 of the vestal and that of the priest. Society, as 

 a whole, relies on scientists for these things 

 and these responsibilities are especially ours. 



It has frequently seemed to me that we, as 

 a group, fulfill these requirements with a max- 

 imum of friction and waste and with a mini- 

 mum of efficiency. At least it is not difficult 

 for a dreamer or an idealist to suggest general 



