August 14, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



223 



On the other hand, the number of inde- 

 pendent research organizations in the 

 United States is less than half a dozen; 

 their aggregate annual income is less than 

 two million dollars; and the number of 

 officials primarily connected with them is 

 less than five hundred. 



The overwhelming disparity between 

 these figures should assure us that there is 

 no immediate and no prospective danger 

 of the usurpation on the part of the more 

 recent research organizations of the rights, 

 privileges and immunities so long, and in 

 the main so justly, enjoyed by educational 

 establishments. But these arithmetical 

 data go further and serve to dispel other 

 illusions which have much hindered the 

 progress of research during the past decade. 

 They show at a glance why the combined 

 incomes of a few research institutions could 

 not meet the deficiencies even of their 

 nearest allies, to say nothing of meeting the 

 limitless wants of numerous other estab- 

 lishments which have expected likewise to 

 be supplied from the same source. It is 

 probable, of course, that of the large aggre- 

 gate income of our higher educational in- 

 stitutions only a small fraction is available 

 for the promotion of research. This must 

 certainly be the case if the vast amount of 

 expert testimony available is to be taken 

 at its face value. But here again there 

 appear some obscurities that need clearing 

 up. For, as already indicated, it is claimed 

 by many of our highly esteemed academic 

 colleagues that colleges and universities 

 are not only specially qualified and 

 equipped for the conduct of investigation, 

 but that they are the real ancestral homes 

 of this high calling. They seem to possess 

 all of the desiderata except funds. They 

 are like the farmer who has an abundance 

 of fertile land, but who remains inactive 

 because he lacks capital for the production 

 of crops. And just as we would esteem it 



permissible to challenge any claim on the 

 part of our farmer that he is an expert in 

 husbandry and that his farm is a natural 

 agricultural experiment station, so must we 

 regard it permissible, if not highly desira- 

 ble in the interests of progress, to question 

 the claims of our academic colleagues. The 

 simple truth seems to be that research has 

 been and is still rarely regarded by the 

 great majority of academic men and women 

 as anything but an unimportant incident 

 to the principal business of academic life. 

 This principal business is the transmission 

 from generation to generation of acquired 

 learning; and it has been adhered to so 

 generally and so rigorously in the past that 

 until our own time educational institutions 

 might be said, with only slight qualifica- 

 tions, to have been depositories of station- 

 ary thought. Moreover, in these days of 

 decreasing pretensions and increasing ful- 

 fillments it is incumbent especially on those 

 claiming superior qualifications and facil- 

 ities for research to bestir themselves in 

 order that they may secure that degree 

 of independence which is indispensable to 

 the effective pursuit of fruitful investiga- 

 tions. It is futile as well as incoherent to 

 argue that the funds of the newer organiza- 

 tions could be better applied by the older 

 ones, since we have not heard of the latter 

 proposing to divide their incomes with the 

 financially embarrassed, but often highly 

 commendable, smaller colleges of the 

 country. But in addition to this patent 

 inconsistency on the part of the protestants 

 there is an obvious and insuperable arith- 

 metical obstacle in the way of an acceptable 

 division of the incomes of a few research 

 organizations amongst a multitude of edu- 

 cational establishments, however worthy and 

 however selected. 



All this leads up to a frank submission 

 of the proposition that whatever may prove 

 to be the working relations between research 



