April 24, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



591 



lieve that the pi'ogress can be made more 

 rapid, and that scholarship in theoretical 

 and experimental physics can be more 

 quickly put where it should be by the de- 

 velopment of a new and higher institution, 

 which shall be largely unhampered by the 

 accustomed administration and students 

 of our universities. 



And I can not proceed further without 

 saying a familiar word about our students. 

 The students in our universities may be 

 divided into three classes, as follows : those 

 who early in their university career think 

 they know how they wish to function in 

 society and who remain in the university 

 primarily as an aid to carrying out serious 

 purposes — those who attend the universitj^ 

 for a pleasant life and ultimate social stand- 

 ing primarily, who, like Micawber, trust 

 that something will turn up — and those 

 with a serious desire to specialize in some 

 line of human activity after they have ob- 

 tained some notion of the relative merits 

 of the various classes of activities and their 

 own fitness and interest. 



Those of the first class constitute a large 

 portion of the students of our professional 

 colleges. The average brightness and capa- 

 bility of this class is very good. Perhaps 

 this is because of the definiteness of pro- 

 cedure, and the assurance of a life of com- 

 fort and respectability. Perhaps some are 

 afraid of being classed with the non-seri- 

 ous, purposeless ones and again some do 

 not trust themselves to a broad career with 

 its many chances and pitfalls. 



The second class are the most numerous 

 generally. They sometimes study elemen- 

 tary physics, and they usually get some 

 good as a result of their sojourn in the uni- 

 versity. No doubt the average of society is 

 raised. Some who come to scoff remain to 

 pray. The only objection to this class of 

 students is that they are not worth their 

 cost. Of course they can not be eliminateii 

 because of the difficulty of discerning who 



belongs to this class and because of the po- 

 litical dangers. The students of the third 

 class are all too few in number, and of this 

 class the contamination by the other classes 

 is so great that the net weight is frequently 

 vanishingly small. From this third class 

 we should draw our scholars in all fields of 

 pure science and the humanities, our art- 

 ists, our administrators in many fields, in- 

 cluding senators, representatives, college 

 presidents and leaders, wherever there is a 

 fight between the old and the new, because 

 forsooth these men should view human ac- 

 tivities in the broad sense, and therefore 

 should recognize what efforts conform to 

 the development of society and the universe. 

 Now the great criticism that a physicist 

 in particular may bring against our uni- 

 versities is that the cream of the time and 

 energy of the university professor is taken 

 in contact with students of classes one and 

 two. 



THE SITUATION IN OUR INDUSTRIES 



And what is the situation in our indus- 

 tries that we should declare that it is im- 

 possible for industrial research laboratories 

 to properly develop science, no matter how 

 much wealth and energy they may expend 

 for investigation. In order to answer this 

 question we may inquire into their ideals 

 and methods, their resources and their 

 achievements. 



The ideal in our industries is admittedly 

 investigation that pays, i. e., investigation 

 for a useful purpose. Now, as Dr. Whitney 

 points out, the pay comes in two directions — 

 one in returning more dollars and cents 

 than is invested in the research laboratory, 

 and, secondly, in maintaining the practise 

 of the manufacturing concern by being 

 ready to cope intelligently with any other 

 concern that may attempt supremacy as a 

 result of new discoveries. It may be unfair 

 to pronounce upon the question as to 

 whether there is a soul in a commercial 

 enterprise that leads it to desire to achieve 



