Febeuaet 28, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



209 



the general benefit of industries, as the two 

 are so closely associated. 



Comparisons of data on the nxunbers of 

 officials and instructors employed, students 

 trained (where it is a teaching institution), 

 and public money expended, when referred to 

 a population basis, would reveal for Ontario, 

 if space warranted their publication, similar 

 favorable results. And it would be easy to 

 cite other provinces and states on this con- 

 tinent comparing favorably with Prussia. 



It is not difficult to understand why the 

 faith in German and Prussian " greatness " in 

 research has become so general in America, 

 as it was the privilege of the Germans them- 

 selves, as usual, to bell the cat. In November, 

 1915, a debate took place in the Reichstag 

 over the spending of 40,000,000 marks in 

 propagandist work in the United States of 

 America, and a socialist member asked what 

 good they had received from it. The outlay 

 involved liberal sums for illustrated articles 

 on the industrial training institutions of Ger- 

 many, inserted in United States illustrated 

 journals which circulate also in Canada. 

 AVhile the propagandists knew the value of 

 advertising, many who read the articles and 

 stiU derive their arguments from them failed 

 to understand that it was advertising matter. 

 Whatever progress Germany made was due to 

 the application of science to the industries, 

 and no right-minded i)erson would begrudge 

 them peaceable success, if their international 

 iwlitics had been just. 



It is not surprising to find that research 

 had been along different lines in Prussia and 

 in Ontario, their material being received here 

 in exchange mostly for well -developed agri- 

 cultural products. The war changed this, and 

 in a propaganda of the manufacturing classes 

 to throw the burden of research upon the 

 public, paid for out of the public treasuries, 

 it is well to bear in mind the reasonable plan 

 adopted in England of granting a pound of 

 government aid for every poimd expended by 

 private enterprbe. ^ p jj^^^..^^^ 



Normal School Building, 



TOBONTO 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE LONDON IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF 

 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



We learn from the London Times that past 

 and present students of the Imperial College 

 of Science and Technology at a mass meeting 

 in the Imperial College Union, on January 29, 

 decided, with only one dissentient, to sign a 

 petition urging the governors of the college to 

 take immediate steps to raise the status of 

 the college to that of a university of tech- 

 nology, distinct from the University of Lon- 

 don, and empowered to confer its own degrees 

 in science and technology. 



The petition ejcpressed the opinion that the 

 recognition of the Imperial College as an in- 

 stitution of university rank should be one of 

 the earliest items in the program of legislative 

 reconstruction, and that his majesty's govern- 

 ment should give every encouragement to stu- 

 dents who desire to devote their lives to sci- 

 ence and technology. 



Mr. Herbert Wright, one of the governors 

 of the college and a past student, who presided, 

 said they were concerned with the future of 

 the students and the future status of the Im- 

 perial College of Science — matters of supreme 

 importance not merely to themselves and those 

 who would succeed them, but indirectly to the 

 whole of the British Empire. The legitimate 

 demand of the day, especially prominent in 

 the City of London, was that there should be 

 established a very close relationship between 

 scientific research and industry. Furthermore, 

 many of them held the view that no honor was 

 too great, no distinction too high, for students 

 who, by the application of scientific principles 

 to the problems of daily life, increased the 

 wealth and power of the British Empire, and 

 added to the grand total of this world's hap- 

 piness. Industrial concerns in London were 

 strongly in favor of giving full encouragement 

 and the highest recognition to men and women 

 who devoted their lives to scientific and in- 

 dustrial research. They could rest assured 

 that this college had been, and was still, the 

 principal source of supply of technologists to 

 those in charge of industry in the City of 

 London. 



