100 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BALTIMORE MEETING 



There is a short-range usefulness which satisfies an urgent present demand 

 and is successful to the extent that it meets the need as seen. There is, on the 

 other hand, a long-range usefulness which fills no present need and which 

 might be counted useless, but which in time may prove to be of far greater 

 value than the short-range variety ; thus the work of Faraday and Maxwell 

 on electricity laid the foundation for modern electrical development, including 

 wireless telegraphy and telephony, and yet Maxwell's work is highly mathe- 

 matical and abstract in the extreme. Practical men and the public in general 

 have little sympathy and appreciation for ''pure research'' as they term it, 

 and yet the greatest and most unexpected economic advances have resulted 

 from abstract research rather than from studies of direct practical bearing. 



Great industrial corporations are learning to view research properly and 

 employ in their laboratories, in addition to technical experts and routine fac- 

 tory men, scientists on abstract research, from which no immediate application 

 or commercial return is expected. The task before industrial and govern- 

 mental organizations is to strike the proper balance between short-range and 

 long-range research, such that the commercial or popular demand is met and 

 yet a continuous stream of results from investigations into fundamental prin- 

 ciples is maintained, from which ultimately far-reaching practical applications 

 will flow. It requires a mind of vision to establish this balance ; the narrow- 

 minded man considers only the immediate yield of tangible results. The work- 

 man is paid according to the quantity and quality of his daily labor. The man 

 of research, on the other hand, may not obtain the results he is seeking for 

 months or even years; but he is necessarily a man of adaptability and re- 

 source, and if placed in executive positions will function better than the man 

 of limited vision. In large organizations the man of research is liable to be 

 engulfed by executive tasks which pay better and are better appreciated by 

 the business world. Abstract research is not generally recognized as public 

 service of the highest kind and is commonly poorly paid; it takes patriotism 

 and enthusiasm of a high order for an efiicient investigator to remain at 

 research. 



The record which scientists have made during the present war in solving 

 industrial problems has been excellent, and many manufacturers appreciate 

 now the advantages of scientific control within the factory. They are offering- 

 scientists factory and executive positions and scientists are naturally answer- 

 ing the call. This situation has many favorable features, but steps should be 

 taken to counteract the tendency to absorb the best research men in this man- 

 ner; otherwise much research will be lost which might be of the greatest 

 value and this country will lag behind others and be placed at a disadvantage. 

 The conservation of research men for research is a critical task at the present 

 time. 



Eemarks were also made by Messrs. Whitman Cross, J. P. Iddings^ 

 J. Barrell, C. P. Berkey, and D. AYliite, with reply by the author. 



IMPERIAL MIXERAL RESOURCES BUREAU, LONDON, ENGLAND 

 BY WILLET G. MILLER 



Presented bv title in the absence of the author. 



