6oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the facilities of wireless and of other methods of communication, or any 

 of the thousands of things that steam and electricity can supply, every 

 one traces back beyond the artisan and the financier to the oft forgotten 

 investigator but for whose labors there would be occasion for neither, 

 and even kings could not have as a luxury that which all the world now 

 deems a necessity. 



It is absolutely essential to our future progress, nor can this be 

 emphasized too strongly, that we appreciate the inestimable value of 

 pure research; that we realize the futility without it of every effort 

 to advance, and the certainty with it of the creation of new industries, 

 the rinding of new comforts and the improvement of man's every con- 

 dition: and it is equally essential that on realizing this we have the 

 courage to act according to our convictions. 



Let us then humbly and honestly inquire what part we Americans as 

 individuals, as communities and as a nation are taking in this the chief 

 labor of the human race for its existence and for its betterment. The 

 average individual, if he is honest with himself, is not likely to feel very 

 proud of his own achievements or of those of his community, nor even 

 satisfied with the earnestness of his efforts; and therefore as a nation 

 we are not able to point with pride to the part we have taken in scien- 

 tific investigations. Good work has been done and is being done in an 

 increasingly large amount, but on the whole, as a nation, we are not 

 doing our duty in this respect, for our productiveness, relative to our 

 numbers, falls far short of that of most of our mother countries, such 

 as England, France, Germany and Holland, and besides many of the 

 more important discoveries that we claim were made by men of foreign 

 birth. 



It is not very agreeable to have to admit this state of affairs, but 

 only the ignorant fail to see their own faults, and only the coward re- 

 fuses to admit them. The wise thing to do is to admit them frankly — 

 at least to one's self — and the courageous thing is to begin promptly 

 and persistently to do one's full duty as he sees it. 



It would be well if possible to learn the cause of this generally ad- 

 mitted rarity of American discoveries, so that as in the case of a disease 

 a remedy can be intelligently sought for. It can not be attributed to 

 race difference, since we are of the same stock that produces so much 

 more on the other side of the ocean. Nor can it be attributed to lack 

 of means, for we boast of the greatest wealth of any nation of this or of 

 any past age, and to our universities we make gifts whose princely 

 magnificence astounds the world. Neither is it due to our mad rush in 

 business, our striving after wealth, for in general our greatest business 

 centers, our wealthiest cities, are the principal sources of our original 

 contributions to knowledge; while that very part of our country which 

 has always boasted its superiority to the sordid things of mammon, to 

 the littleness of business strife, and prided itself upon its intelligence, 



