1186 | Editors’ Table. [ December, 
EDITORS’ TABLE. 
EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE. 
There is little difference of- opinion among the scientific 
men of this country as to the great value of Government aid to 
scientific research. Not only is its importance obvious to them 
as craftsmen, but as citizens. It is not worth while to make nice 
theoretical distinctions between State and United States rights in 
this matter, for the great point is to secure, in the language of 
Smithson of illustrious memory, “the increase and diffusion of 
knowledge among men,” and especially the men of this country. If 
the State governments are too indifferent to their own interests to 
foster the work, let the General Government sustain it. Its utility 
is two-fold, The one object which is alway obvious, is the ex- 
ploration and exposition of the resources of the country. The 
other, no less important, but less understood, is the development 
and occupation of the intellectual force, activity and thought of 
the men of the country. The cultivation of man is the most 
important of human enterprises, and a republican form of govern- 
ment rests on a basis of such cultivation. The government aid 
to the universities of Germany is one of the principal assurances 
of progressive, or even continued, civilization which the world 
possesses. As the Government of the United States does not 
aid the universities of the country, it should not fail to sustain 
and develop its own system, which embraces the various scientific 
bureaus at Washington. 
- It has sometimes been objected that the great power of the 
Government treasury constitutes it such a rival, as to seriously 
discourage private enterprise in this direction. There are two” 
reasons why this reasoning is fallacious. First, the field of sci- 
ence is so vast that no organization can cover it; there is always 
room for workers, especially at the top. Second, brains are not 
produced by money, and ideas are not for sale on demand. The 
_ thinker who produces ideas on $1500 a year, will only be too 
_ glad to have some one in Government employ to illustrate them 
with, larger resources. Moreover there are some departments of 
tific work in which the Government can have few or no 
These are the — enterprises which eee per- 
