March 9, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



231 



that in each advanced educational institution there 

 be a committee on research to promote original in- 

 vestigations on the part of the faculty and gradu- 

 ate students. 



5. To establish research fellowships in educa- 

 tional institutions, thus affording qualified work- 

 ers an opportunity to devote themselves entirely to 

 research work. 



6. To secure wherever possible endowments for 

 research purposes. 



It is evident that so far from being pri- 

 marily work in the practical application of 

 what we know already, the enterprise is 

 intended to be primarily a stimulus to 

 fundamental research in every direction. 

 It is not practical application that is to be 

 stimulated chiefly, but exploration, which 

 may or may not result in practical appli- 

 cation. It is felt, for example, that the 

 more we know about the structures and 

 activities of plants, the better equipped we 

 shall be to handle plants intelligently. Our 

 botanical program, therefore, is simply to 

 extend the boundaries of our knowledge of 

 plants as far as possible. In pursuance of 

 this program, at least two things are felt 

 to be necessary. 



In the first place, there must be devel- 

 oped some scheme of cooperation among our 

 botanical establishments; and notably be- 

 tween the research establishments and the 

 so-called practical establishments. For ex- 

 ample, we recognize in general three great 

 botanical agencies at work to-day, working 

 independently, and in too great ignorance 

 of each other's results. These agencies are 

 the Department of Agriculture, the agri- 

 cultural colleges and experiment stations, 

 and the universities. All of these agencies 

 are investigating plants from various 

 points of view, but they are not as mutually 

 helpful, or even as mutually stimulating 

 as they should be in the interest of prog- 

 ress. I have met many eases of men intel- 

 lectually equipped to work, biit with no 

 adequate material or equipment; and also 

 even more eases of fine equipment and 



abundant material, and no man trained to 

 use them effectively. In other words, the 

 distribution of men and equipment is not 

 as effective as it should be. 



In the second place, there must be devel- 

 oped some plan of supporting research 

 wherever there is a competent investigator. 

 The movement to establish research fellow- 

 ships has begun already, and as the value 

 of research becomes better understood, 

 there is no reason to doubt that every bo- 

 tanical explorer will have the opportunity 

 to explore. There is at present a tremen- 

 dous amount of waste in the investigators 

 produced by the universities. Every year 

 scores of young investigators, well equipped 

 to continue exploration, are automatically 

 side-tracked by a degree, and forced into 

 positions where investigation is killed, or 

 at least becomes anemic. The council pro- 

 poses to conserve some of this investigative 

 ability, and to give it a chance to express 

 itself. In short, the opportunity now pre- 

 sented to us is to increase the opportunities 

 for botanical research to such an extent by 

 cooperation and conservation of investiga- 

 tive ability that the progress of botany 

 should take on a greatly increased mo- 

 mentum. And all this can be done if at this 

 psychological moment we as botanists can 

 make it clear that a fundamental knowledge 

 of plants is a great national asset. 



John M. Coulter 



University of Chicago 



THE COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED 



ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF THE 



AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 



THE ADVANCEMENT OF 



SCIENCE 



REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

 ENGINEERING 



In view of the fact that a subcommittee on 

 engineering has only very recently been ap- 

 pointed by the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science committee of one 



