Makch 23, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



283 



appropriations for scientific research than 

 any other nation, and the money has on the 

 whole been used to advantage. The fact 

 that the work there is mainly economic is 

 not, in my opinion, altogether a drawback. 

 The difSculty has been that better provision 

 is made for routine work than for excep- 

 tional performance. The present emerg- 

 ency has led to further large appropria- 

 tions by congress for scientific research, 

 and we may hope that the truth expressed 

 in the President's words "Preparation for 

 peace is the best preparation for war" will 

 lead to still greater efforts to promote sci- 

 ence for the national welfare. The govern- 

 ment has done practically nothing for psy- 

 chology, and the Bureau of Education is 

 inadequately supported. The Smith-Hughes 

 bill, however, provides a considerable sum 

 for educational research, a large part of 

 which will be psychological in character. 

 Public education is supported with increas- 

 ing appreciation throughout the country 

 and our educational systems are gradually 

 learning the importance of psychological 

 experts. State supported institutions for 

 the defective and criminal classes are also 

 beginning to make such appointments. 



The patent laws were enacted before 

 psychology had been invented; there is at 

 present no way by which ideas can be con- 

 trolled for the profit of the man who gives 

 them to the world, even to the smallest per- 

 centage of the value of his gift. How this 

 may be corrected may itself become an ob- 

 ject of psychological research. If some 

 means could be devised by which the state 

 could pay for the services of individuals 

 in accordance with their value to the state, 

 the progress of science and of civilization 

 would be greatly accelerated. In the mean- 

 while the psychologist may increase an in- 

 adequate salary by the writing of text- 

 books and by outside teaching and lectur- 

 ing, but he usually does so at the sacrifice 



of research. There may soon be psycho- 

 logical experts whose advice will be paid 

 for at the same rate as is now paid for the 

 advice of physicians, engineers and lawyers. 

 It is a curious circumstance that while the 

 plan is being introduced of full-time pro- 

 fessors of medicine with relatively adequate 

 salaries, the professors in the graduate 

 faculties must increasingly support their 

 families by outside work. The cost per 

 student or per professor of the magnificent 

 buildings and grounds of the university 

 where we are now meeting is perhaps four 

 times what it once was or need now be for 

 purposes of teaching and research, whereas 

 the effective value of the salary of the pro- 

 fessor at Columbia is now about one fourth 

 what it was thirty years ago. 



It is our business as individuals and espe- 

 cially as united in this American Psycho- 

 logical Association to use all possible efforts 

 at all times, in all places and in all ways to 

 improve the conditions under which re- 

 search work is done. Science has doubled 

 the length of human life and quadrupled 

 the productivity of labor. A single advance 

 in applied science, such as the Bessemer 

 steel process or the electromagnet, discov- 

 ered by Faraday in the only research labo- 

 ratory then existing, may add annually 

 some two billion dollars to the wealth of 

 the world. The psychological and social 

 sciences have already done their share in 

 freeing us from superstition and unreason, 

 in leading us to tell the truth as we see it 

 and in some measure to see the truth as it 

 is. They have repaid many fold their cost 

 in economic applications. An improve- 

 ment of ten per cent, in the educational 

 work of this country saves us a hundred 

 million dollars a year. But it is to the fu- 

 ture that we look to obtain a control over 

 human conduct corresponding to that of 

 physical science over tlie material world, 

 and more vital. We must eliminate the in- 



