634 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1114 



some one tried to learn more about it, and 

 so, ultimately, glass was made. Research is 

 still under way on that very material, and 

 countless numbers of men have added to 

 the knowledge. Glass has kept the cold 

 from the house. It has let in the light. It 

 has renewed our eyes as they have worn 

 out. Through telescope and microscope it 

 has shown us the greatest and the smallest 

 things of the universe. It has bottled our 

 drinks and held our lights. Every year 

 still adds new service, just in proportion as 

 experiments add new knowledge of glass. 

 To-day we hear of new glass permeable to 

 ultra-violet light, glass opaque to X-rays, 

 and glass for cooking utensils. Not one of 

 these little increments will ever be lost, but 

 will continue in use, so how highly should 

 we value them ? Why did we delay so long 

 in coming thus far, and how far or fast may 

 we still go? 



Research is preparation. It is preparing 

 in our decade for the problems and the nec- 

 essary work of the next. There are various 

 kind of preparedness. We are hearing a 

 great deal about one of them nowadays — 

 immediate preparedness for national de- 

 fense. But there is a more far-sighted pre- 

 paredness that no one has adequately de- 

 scribed and of which the building of new 

 laboratories is a sign. This type is the very 

 best kind of preparedness for national de- 

 fense, if begun in time. The continued 

 study of the secrets of nature, the uncover- 

 ing of buried treasures which always seem 

 buried just deeply enough to develop the 

 digger — these are the criteria of a strength- 

 ening nation. 



Research presents a way, and the only 

 certain one, of insuring peace, of preparing 

 successfully for defense, and of being suc- 

 cessful in war. It is the lasting, undeviat- 

 ing factor which has always dominated. 

 This may sound bold and entirely incon- 

 sistent in itself. It is all true. Can we 



learn to see it? From the military expert 

 to the anthropologist, thinking men recog- 

 nize that for over 100,000 years war has 

 been ahnost continuous on the earth. The 

 inventors of chipped flint successfully 

 fought those infei-iors who had not experi- 

 mented with flint. There were then no 

 better arms. These also got their game 

 even when it was scarce and other means 

 failed, and so they continued to survive. 

 This little and early example of survival 

 was repeated a great many times before 

 our present complex world conditions were 

 reached, and will as surely continue to be 

 repeated. The fundamentals were always 

 the same. A 42 cm. gun is only a better 

 flint. Trinitrotoluol is only a more modern 

 sling. Arms and ammunition have 

 changed, but just so have also changed the 

 myriads of other important accessories to 

 survival. This is the important point. 

 Good guns go with good clothes, and 

 niter is used both in fertilizers and in 

 guncotton. The signs that we are improv- 

 ing in our civilization will also indicate that 

 we are growing in our powers of national 

 defense, but this should come rather as a 

 consequence than as an object. And we 

 Americans must not stand still. The world 

 has always been improving, and the real 

 growth and development has come to those 

 nations which have been responsible for the 

 original research work and not for the mere 

 storage or conservation of the knowledge. 



The first or fundamental discovery in 

 any series is not the only important one, so 

 I am going to take an extreme view and 

 say it is only the continuation of research 

 which is of any considerable importance to 

 us. The fundamental discoveries may be 

 like seeds, but the values are like growing 

 plants. An acorn may correspond to the 

 work of a Henry or a Faraday, but the 

 great and growing tree of electrical or 

 chemical work corresponds more nearly to 



