532 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 4Q5. 



manent laboratory, and which, if accepted 

 with all the conditions implied, will prove 

 only a temporary relief, barring the way 

 for greater assistance. 



What is $20,000 a year for. an all-the- 

 year station, when we are now spending at 

 least $13,000 for a summer's work? If 

 Dr. Dohrn requires not less than $40,000 

 to $50,000 to meet the annual expenses of 

 the Naples Station, with an average of not 

 over twenty-five investigators, the same 

 plant here would cost about double that 

 sum. At Naples they can charge $500 a 

 year for a single investigator's table. 

 Here there are too many free laboratories 

 to admit of any price on our tables. More- 

 over, we have to provide for three times as 

 many investigators as they have at Naples, 

 at least for the summer months. 



The glowing anticipations of a permanent 

 laboratory rivaling anything in the world, 

 with which we have been regaled, rise far 

 above the $20,000 a year. For the present, 

 at any rate, they are but clidteaux en Es- 

 pagne, calculated only to console a prema- 

 ture optimism, which can forsake the larger 

 weal in the distance for the nearer allure- 

 ment that fetters and mortgages the whole 

 future. 



Much as we need now, we have larger 

 needs ahead, for which all avenues of sup- 

 port should be kept permanently open. 

 The support that is given to support, that 

 has the potentials of unlimited growth, that 

 asks not to possess, but only to promote, is 

 something incomparably more precious 

 than any support to which is prefixed the 

 sine qua non of absolute possession and 

 authority. It is more precious, not only 

 for all the qualities of disinterested benef- 

 icence, but also for the reason that it is 

 essentially cooperative in character, and is 

 thus in harmony with the policy of the 

 laboratory. 



Cooperation has been the law and the 

 gospel of our whole scheme of organization. 



It is the one thing that has given the labor- 

 atory unique distinction among marine sta- 

 tions. The prime condition of honest and 

 effective cooperation is an independent or- 

 ganization, representing fairly all interests 

 concerned. Independence has therefore 

 been no meaningless word with us, and 

 hitherto no embarrassments of poverty 

 have tempted us to purchase relief through 

 annexation to another institution. 



It is difficult to see how independence 

 can be exchanged for money and coopera- 

 tion still remain unimpaired. Cooperative 

 support and independence will certainly 

 go, as they have come, together. Can we 

 lose cooperative support and yet keep the 

 cooperative spirit? We can hardly ex- 

 pect to perform the miracle of separating 

 body and spirit. 



Cooperative support is a means to an 

 end. It presupposes need, and its realiza- 

 tion is possible only under inviting condi- 

 tions and persistent cultivation. The need 

 alone cannot call it into activity; indepen- 

 dence alone cannot bring it forth ; and cul- 

 tivation has no point without the need, and 

 no hope of success under conditions that 

 abridge either the motives or the purposes 

 in view. 



The 'atmosphere' or 'spirit' that pre- 

 vails in the laboratory emanates chiefly 

 from the interaction of sympathies enlisted 

 in a common cause. Cause, responsibility, 

 free initiative, free development, untram- 

 meled policy, all go with independence. 

 The surrender of the ownership of the 

 laboratory reduces it at once to the level of 

 an annex, subordinates its individuality, 

 strips it of final authority, robs it of power 

 to control its own destiny, and subjects its 

 present o^vners permanently to the condi- 

 tion of petitioners. 



If the situation has been fairly stated in 

 its essentials; if the history of the labora- 

 tory points the way to its future welfare; 

 if support is deserved at no sacrifice of 



