610 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 407. 



I realize, however, that psychology has 

 more immediate and pressing needs, that 

 can also be more easily satisfied. First 

 among these I should place the need of help 

 in publication. There can be no question, 

 as Professor Cattell has said (Science, Sep- 

 tember 19, 464), that the present difficul- 

 ties in the way of publication are lament- 

 able. Every year we have, in my own lab- 

 oratory, to make some sacrifice to the cost 

 of printing: dropping out an historical 

 chapter here, cutting out tables there, and 

 what not. "We all know, of course, that the 

 doctorate thesis is likely to be spun out to 

 an unnecessary length; and I am not sure 

 that the fulness of detail affected by certain 

 of the continental journals of psychology 

 is not a distinct hindrance to the science. 

 But it is an indisputable fact that, in 

 America, really good work, work that has 

 been condensed to its limit and that ought 

 to be published, is time and time again held 

 back from the printer because the author 

 or the journal is too poor to print it. Hence 

 I heartily endorse all that Professor Cattell 

 has said under this heading. 



In the second place I should put the 

 need of scholarships and fellowships, and 

 of subsidies to students and professors. 

 There is much to be said for and against 

 our present system of graduate scholar- 

 ships. One thing must, however, be borne 

 in mind: that the appointment of a man, 

 in his last undergraduate year, to a gradu- 

 ate scholarship always carries with it some- 

 thing of a risk. Undergraduate promise is 

 not always fulfilled, and testimonials are 

 slippery things. So that the number of 

 scholarships available for a particular 

 science should be large enough to allow of 

 a good percentage of failures. Failures, I 

 mean, from the point of view of the science ; 

 for any man of decent intelligence must be 

 helped towards his life-work by a year of 

 graduate study, whether he continue it fur- 

 ther or not. If the science is ultimately 



to get a fair share of good men, it must 

 have a large number of students to select 

 fi-om. I should, therefore, see no harm, 

 but rather good, in an increased number of 

 graduate scholarships and fellowships. But 

 I regard two possible modifications of the 

 existing system as more important than its 

 mere enlargement. On the one hand, we 

 need at each university a few really valu- 

 able fellowships, say of $750 or $1,000 for 

 two or three years ; endowments that should 

 allow the exceptional man to do an elaborate 

 piece of investigation before he enters on 

 his teaching career. And on the other, we 

 need, I think, a certain fund for subsidies 

 that should not be looked upon as university 

 honors, but should simply give opportunity 

 of graduate work to men who are too poor 

 to undertake it on their own account and 

 yet too promising to be let slip : subsidies of, 

 perhaps, $300 or $400 for one year. I be- 

 lieve that both of these forms of endowment 

 are sorely needed by psychology, — and one 

 can speak primarily only for one 's own 

 science; and I believe that they would do 

 much more good than the establishment of 

 additional scholarships on the present basis. 

 I have put the student before the profess- 

 or. I regard, however, the helping of the 

 professor by occasional subsidy as of equal 

 importance with the helping of the gradu- 

 ate student. My colleagues will bear me out 

 that there are often times when a gift of 

 $500 or $1,000 would ensure the accomplish- 

 ment of a bit of personal work for which one 

 is reluctant to draw upon the general fund 

 of the laboratory, even if the general fund 

 would stand the drain. There has been 

 some discussion in Science of the reason 

 for lack of appeal to existing research 

 funds. There are two obvious reasons. 

 The one is that the professor, with the pres- 

 sure of teaching and of routine depart- 

 mental work upon him, cannot as a rule see 

 his way clear enough ahead (say, for two 

 or three years) to justify his asking for a 



