702 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol.. XXVI. No. 673 



istry must always be held in check, as 

 Richards has said, by experimental realiza- 

 tion of the logical outcome of his flights of 

 fancy ; but chemical experimentation is one 

 of great minuteness, infinite attention to 

 details and endless preparation. Where 

 the German investigator can have, when he 

 needs them, several assistants, ranking 

 from a newly fledged doctor of philosophy 

 to an associate professor when necessary, a 

 single research assistant in chemistry has 

 until recent years been a rare specimen in 

 America and even now the species is not 

 flourishing— it is being starved to death, by 

 low salaries. From presidents who are 

 chemists down to the least of us, we all 

 have our troubles in securing just one of 

 them; the demand for two would perhaps 

 prostrate the authorities. And yet it 

 would be the economic thing not to limit 

 our investigators to one assistant, for men 

 like Nef, Richards, the two Noyes, can 

 direct half a dozen assistants as well as one, 

 and by the present system their productive 

 years are, to a large extent, simply being 

 wasted. But, unless we secure conditions 

 for a large measure of success and produc- 

 tiveness, chemical research in our u.niversi- 

 ties will never attract our best Americans 

 in sufficient numbers to satisfy the min- 

 imum demand of our country for able in- 

 vestigators in academic and in industrial 

 lines— and that is the point of my argu- 

 ment. 



The last condition I ought to refer to in 

 this connection is one that has caused a 

 wide-spread sentiment of uneasiness in all 

 our universities— the question of the finan- 

 cial side of an academic existence. This 

 serious question, common to all branches 

 of academic research work, is receiving 

 careful attention from our ablest university 

 presidents, and I will leave it entirely in 

 their wiser hands. It is an important 

 factor in regard to the very point raised, 

 the necessity of attracting our able young 



manhood to supply the country's need of 

 investigators. . 



I have tried to point out what I consider 

 the three most essential needs for the de- 

 velopment of American chemical research 

 on a plane worthy of our country, on a 

 plane which will enable it to do its share 

 towards the intellectual progress of our 

 race and which will also prepare it for the 

 great commercial struggle of the future: 

 relief of the investigator from an untoward 

 burden of routine and administrative 

 duties; the exploitation of the talents of 

 these gifted men by the employment of a 

 proper staff of research assistants ; a proper 

 remuneration, that worry for the future of 

 his family — he cares, as a rule, little for 

 himself— may not impair his usefulness. 



The University of Illinois, in selecting a 

 man with the ideals and the capacity of 

 William A. Noyes to develop its work in 

 chemistry, has definitely joined the ranks 

 of those universities which are committed 

 to the attempt to give the highest kind of 

 instruction in chemistry, instruction which 

 will turn out, not artisans, but artists — 

 chemists. In bringing Dr. Noyes here, the 

 university has, as I understand it, wisely 

 kept in mind as far as possible the tlu'ee 

 conditions for successful work which I 

 have tried to outline. The University of 

 Chicago greeted with the greatest satisfac- 

 tion the selection of your excellent presi- 

 dent to be the head of this institution; we 

 knew he would strengthen Illinois, that he 

 would undertake to raise its standards to 

 those of the best universities of all coun- 

 tries; we rejoiced, not only unselfishly in 

 the satisfaction of seeing the promise of a 

 noble work, but also selfishly; for the 

 higher the ideals of our neighbors, the 

 higher must be the plane of our own lives — 

 in institutional life as in private life. In 

 the same way, I would say on behalf of the 

 chemists of the University of Chicago that 

 we heartily welcome the promise of a strong 



