April 24, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



589 



wonderful success of some of our commer- 

 cial research laboratories should furnish a 

 genuine stimulus to those of us who be- 

 lieve in greater opportunities for pure sci- 

 ence. Of course if we should not believe 

 in a scholarship in science which is not 

 hampered by questions of immediate re- 

 wards, then there is no occasion for the 

 plea in this paper. A discussion of the or- 

 ganization and the scope of a working in- 

 stitute can best be given after we have first 

 analyzed somewhat in detail the existing 

 conditions which are manifestly not as effi- 

 cient as they should be. And lastly, we 

 should be in a position to outline a tenta- 

 tive plan for the development of the or- 

 ganization. 



THE SITUATION IN OUB UNIVERSITIES 



The idea of the physical institute is to 

 supplement the work of our universities 

 by founding a higher standard and fur- 

 nishing a new source of inspiration. True 

 enough, our universities have sufficient re- 

 sources to properly foster the work of a 

 physical institute, and there is an abundant 

 supply of men forthcoming. Moreover, 

 they believe in general that productive 

 scholarship is the most important function 

 of a university and it is agreed that genu- 

 ine scholars are of the most rare and diffi- 

 cult type to develop. But the difficulty 

 with our universities is one that arises from 

 mixed ideals, particularly in our state uni- 

 versities. The ideal of competition per- 

 haps takes precedence of all other ideals 

 in practise, and along with this is associ- 

 ated the ideal of efficiency in detail man- 

 agement of students. Surely a university 

 wants scholars, but it wants a large number 

 of students first. It wants more students 

 in order to convince the people of its 

 greatness, so that it may get more money 

 so that it may establish more departments, 

 and so get more students, and so on. It 



must do extension work so that the work 

 of scholars may reach every citizen of the 

 land within a few days after it has been 

 accomplished. Energy and resources that 

 might be directed toward scholarship are 

 scattered in every direction that human 

 imagination can conceive of. The ideal in 

 practise is not how great scholarship, but 

 how thin can it be spread. In other words, 

 there is in our scholarship a strong tendency 

 toward democracy gone mad. Now if only 

 one side of the situation in our universities 

 is emphasized, may it be remembered that 

 the author wishes to make clear a difficulty 

 which can be side-stepped in one particular 

 by the organization of the physical insti- 

 tute. Of course the administrative author- 

 ities of most universities would remind us 

 that they are building for the future. 

 Their ideal is service in a broad sense. 

 Scholarship first in so far as it is first in 

 service to the immediate mass of humanity. 

 Scholarship for the sake of scholarship— 

 never ! But if we will admit the result of 

 the recent investigations of Professor Cat- 

 tell, which is that our administrative 

 officers generally can have no vision of the 

 value of scholarship to the future of so- 

 ciety, we can proceed with our argument. 

 The argument of the administration 

 against scholarship is much like that of 

 one farmer toward the education of his son. 

 No, no, my son, you must stay out of school 

 a few years and safeguard the future. We 

 will raise more corn and feed more hogs, so 

 that we can buy more land, and raise more 

 com, etc., and by and by you can go en- 

 tirely through the university and take your 

 brothers and sisters along if you yet have 

 the desire. 



The predicament of the state universi- 

 ties is well stated by Professor Geo. J. 

 Peirce : 



The masses of a democracy recognize present 

 wants more surely than they anticipate future 



