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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 845 



the organizer, agent and promoter. The most 

 striking instance is the university president or 

 chancellor. His function has been distinctly 

 that of the promoter; and so important has 

 this function appeared in a period of expan- 

 sion that the largest rewards, both pecuniary 

 and in the way of social standing and influ- 

 ence, have gone to the presidency, and some of 

 the ablest and most efBcient from the profes- 

 sorial ranks have been drafted into adminis- 

 tration. Since the duties of the president have 

 been too exacting to allow a continuance of 

 scholarly work, the result has no doubt been 

 a considerable shrinkage in the volume of pos- 

 sible production. Further, ambitious young 

 professors, observing which way the path of 

 distinction led, have often set themselves to 

 prove their ability in administration rather 

 than in scientific production. Administrative 

 opportunity has abounded throughout the edu- 

 cational system, and many who entered the 

 system from love of science or literature have 

 found their attention largely absorbed by mat- 

 ters of management and promotion. Much of 

 this bustling administrative activity has been 

 a necessary result of expansion, but much of 

 it has been due to mere contagion and mutual 

 emulation. The center of competitive activity 

 has been shifted from scholarship to adminis- 

 tration. Now all administrative work, how- 

 ever necessary in the circumstances and how- 

 ever ably performed, is but a means to the 

 ends of scholarship and of education; and it 

 seems a pity that so much of the best brains 

 should go to the means and so little be applied 

 directly to the ends in view. The head of a 

 department, instead of entering his laboratory 

 with the thought of his experiment uppermost 

 in his mind, is first of all oppressed by the 

 condition of his desk. When that is cleared 

 up, he hopes to go ahead with his investiga- 

 tion; but the desk occupies him for so large 

 a part of the day that the experiment is de- 

 ferred till to-morrow. There is a tremendous 

 dissipation of energy among university 

 professors. We are always busy, but sel- 

 dom get down to business. We are always 

 busy trying to insure that the work of science 

 be done, and leave little time to do the work 



ourselves. We are so much occupied in con- 

 tributing to the advancement of science that 

 we are unable to make contributions to 

 science. 



The attention of our scholars has been de- 

 flected by educational as well as administra- 

 tive interests. I am inclined to regard this, 

 too, as a consequence of expansion. For our 

 higher institutions of learning have expanded 

 in faster ratio than the general population, 

 and this means that we are undertaking to 

 educate many who are not specially suited to 

 a higher education. Since the net has been 

 made finer, we are catching many small fish, 

 and the educational problem is largely con- 

 cerned with these small fish. Whatever be the 

 explanation, there is no doubt of the fact that 

 our university professors are more occupied 

 in the effort to impart instruction and insure 

 that the student derives some benefit from it 

 than is the ease in foreign universities. I 

 have heard it said that whenever a group of 

 European university men get together, they 

 talk science, whereas we talk education. We 

 are greatly concerued about the student, and 

 largely about the poor student. This may be 

 best in the circumstances, and I have no de- 

 sire to attempt a rough and ready solution of 

 so complicated a problem; but simply point 

 out the undoubted fact that here is a factor in 

 our comparative lack of scholarly production. 

 With both the administrative and the educa- 

 tional interests so strong among us, we are 

 prone to hover in the outskirts of scholarship, 

 instead of plunging into the heart of it. 



There is another aspect to the whole matter, 

 for the universities are not the sole reposi- 

 tories and organizers of scholarship. Guilds of 

 scholars have to be considered as a means of 

 exciting to productivity. We have, indeed, 

 few productive scholars outside of the univer- 

 sities, though this is at least partly due to the 

 prestige which university professorships have 

 among us, for it would be easy to name a 

 score of scholars and scientific men who, 

 though of independent means, have sought 

 university connections, in order to have a defi- 

 nite standing in the scholarly world. College 

 loyalty has been a strong force among us, and 



