November 30, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



675 



At the jubilee of the University of Wis- 

 consin, in 1904, Professor T. C. Chamber- 

 lin, of the University of Chicago, said : 



The fundamental and ulterior sources of educa- 

 tion do not lie in the conventional schools, but 

 back of them. These sources can not here be 

 defined at length, but, in a simple phrase, they 

 may be said to lie in the great stock of ideas 

 possessed by mankind. This phrase inadequately 

 embraces the whole, but let us agree that it may 

 stand for the whole. In so far as the stock of 

 ideas of a people is narrow, defective and errone- 

 ous, on the one hand, or broad, demonstrative and 

 exact, on the other, in so far the fundamental 

 subject-material of education partakes of these 

 qualities. In so far as the sentiments, beliefs, 

 attitudes and activities of a people are narrow, 

 loose and perverted, on the one hand, or free, 

 generous and ethical on the other, in so far edu- 

 cation inevitably shares in these qualities. For 

 these are the fundamental sources of education. 

 The basal problem of education is, therefore, con- 

 cerned with the entire compass of the intellectual 

 possessions of a people, and, in a measure, of all 

 mankind. The special selections propagated in 

 the schools are but a miniature reflection of the 

 total possession, and this selection is usually 

 noble or mean, as the whole is noble or mean. 



If these considerations are true, the fundamen- 

 tal promotion of education lies in an increase of 

 the intellectual possessions of a people, and in 

 the mental activities and attitudes that grow out 

 of the getting, the testing and using of these 

 possessions. 



******* 



The education of the individual does not neces- 

 sarily lift the education of the aggregate, for if 

 we convey to the rising generation only such ideas 

 as we have inherited, the summit level of edu- 

 cation is not raised. There may be diffusion, 

 there may be an evening up, but no lifting of 

 the upper levels. If the intellectuality of the new 

 generation does not rise above that of the old, 

 there is only a Chinese dead level of ancestral 

 propagation. 



****** 4f' 



To secure laudable progress in the fundamental 

 conditions of education, systematic provision for 

 scientific research is necessary. 



Granting now the need of scientific in- 

 vestigation in agriculture, as in other 

 branches of human activity, let us inquire 



what are some of the conditions which 

 favor or hinder it. A recent writer,^ de- 

 scribing the * needs of scientific men, ' says : 

 We neither expect scintillating ' success,' nor do 

 we look forward to any prizes in the way of 

 highly paid positions. Our needs are mainly two: 

 (1) adequate time for work and (2) a living 

 wage. 



After mentioning two instances of the 

 lack of time for scientific research among 

 his acquaintances, he continues: 



The difficulty is intimately connected with the 

 other one, that of the living wage. There is no 

 living wage for research; research in pure sci- 

 ence is at present a parasitic industry, to borrow 

 a term from the economists. Both of the men 

 I have just referred to get their salaries for doing 

 economic work, and whatever they do in pure 

 science is supported and made possible by the 

 other. A still larger body of researchers lives 

 upon the proceeds of teaching, while those who 

 actually get a living ty research are very, very 

 few. The experiment stations, even, do not dis- 

 obey the general rule, for the demand for im- 

 mediate results of economic value is such that the 

 workers are almost obliged, in the majority of 

 cases, to desist from Avork of a broad and funda- 

 mental character, while most of them, of course, 

 have to do a large amount of teaching. 



In this last sentence there is indicated 

 the serious danger that threatens agricul- 

 tural research in the United States. Even 

 a very cursory review of the changes of 

 the last twenty-five years shows a wonder- 

 ful record of progress on the material and 

 practical side. We have vastly increased 

 our equipment for agricultural investiga- 

 tion and added many-fold to the numbers 

 presumably engaged in it, but it is the out- 

 put of real scientific results, which will 

 stand the test of time, commensurate with 

 the increased facilities. 



The agencies for agricultural investiga- 

 tion which have made such a phenomenal 

 growth in the last quarter of a century 

 were at first looked upon with suspicion or 

 distrust by the public. They had to dem- 

 onstrate their right to be supported from 



2 Cockerell, Science, August 11, 1906, p. 178. 



