THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



IOI 



number of " big men " I found what 

 seemed to me to be the least desirable 

 systems of management." Mr. Cooke 

 would remedy this by arranging mat- 

 ters so " that when a man has ceased 

 to be efficient he must be retired, as 

 he would in any other line of work " ; 

 but he does not tell us who would be 

 responsible for dismissing professors 

 or whether under these circumstances 

 professors in our leading universities 

 might not properly expect salaries 

 equal to those of our leading engi- 

 neers, physicians and lawyers. 



It should be understood that these 

 remarks and quotations give only one 

 side of Mr. Cooke's report, which is in 

 many respects a document worth read- 

 ing. The usefulness of our universities 

 should be increased; their money is 

 not always spent to the best advan- 

 tage. It seems to be generally true 

 that efficiency is inversely as the size 

 of the " concern." The writer of this 

 note has recently had dealings with a 

 department store, a publishing house I 

 and an express company, and he can ' 

 assure Mr. Cooke and the Carnegie 

 Foundation that there is even more 

 urgent need for missionary labors on 

 behalf of efficiency elsewhere than in 

 the university. Efficiency is desirable 

 everywhere; but it is only a means to 

 an end. The university stands for 

 higher things — scholarship, research, 

 service, leadership, ideals, honor. It 

 is doubtful whether the further elab- 

 oration of department-store methods 

 in the university will even reduce the 

 " cost per unit hour," if " overhead 

 charges " are included. The solution 

 is the reverse of that proposed by Mr. 

 Cooke. The department should have 

 autonomy and the individual freedom. 

 Only thus will the best men be drawn j 

 to the universities and be led to do 

 their best work. 



THE MOUNT WILSON CONFER- 

 ENCE OF THE SOLAR UNION 

 The fourth conference of the Inter- 

 national Union for Solar Research was 

 held at the Solar Observatory of the 



Carnegie Institution, Mount Wilson, 

 California, from August 31 to Septem- 

 ber 2, 1910. The attendance was large, 

 37 delegates from eleven foreign coun- 

 tries being recorded on the official list, 

 together with 46 Americans. Many oi 

 tne latter, though not members of the 

 union, had accepted its invitation to 

 attend the conference. 



Nearly half the delegates crossed the 

 continent together, as many had at- 

 tended the meeting of the Astronom- 

 ical and Astrophysical Society of 

 America at Harvard (August 17-19). 

 This afforded opportunities for in- 

 formal conferences and discussions al- 

 most equal in value to those provided 

 by the conference itself. 



On Monday, August 29, the members 

 of the conference visited the labora- 

 tories and shops of the Solar Observa- 

 tory, which are in Pasadena at the 

 foot of the mountain. Among the 

 things of greatest interest may be men- 

 tioned the exceedingly well-equipped 

 spectroscopic laboratory, the massive 

 machinery for grinding the great 100- 

 inch mirror and a wealth of photo- 

 graphs, some of which showed the 

 enormous light-gathering power of the 

 great GO-inch reflector now installed on 

 the mountain. 



The afternoon was pleasantly occu- 

 pied by a garden party given by Pro- 

 fessor and Mrs. Hale, and on the fol- 

 lowing morning the party, numbering 

 nearly 100, began the 5,000-foot climb 

 to the observatory, some in carriages, 

 some on horseback and a few hardy 

 souls on foot. The hotel on the sum- 

 mit, though crowded to the limit, pro- 

 vided all with very comfortable ac- 

 commodation. 



No formal papers were read at the 

 sessions of the conference, which were 

 devoted to the reports of committees 

 and to questions of general policy; but 

 the larger part of the day was free for 

 conferences of an informal nature, 

 which were most valuable, especially 

 to the younger men. 



The first official session was on 

 Wednesday morning. Professors Pick- 



