NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
225 
institutions the stimulus given by leaders of research, should J3e strongly 
encouraged. 
(7) The establishment of a large number of research fellowships, each 
yielding one thousand dollars or more annually, is very desirable. If stu- 
dents showing special aptitude in their work for the doctor's degree could 
thus be enabled to devote themselves to research for a year or more, their 
future career as investigators might be assured. Research fellowships may 
be conferred by colleges on graduates who have taken their doctor's degree 
elsewhere, or used to secure the services of non-graduates in research 
laboratories. 
(8) The time is also opportune to secure the establishment of research 
professorships and research endowments. The present appreciation of the 
national importance of research, and the increasing sense of personal obhga- 
tion to the state, will cause men of means to contribute more freely than ever 
before. 
(9) Most important of all is the encouragement of the spirit of research, 
and the development of a sympathetic atmosphere in which the investigator 
can work to the best possible advantage. 
Large institutions should easily be able to extend their research activities, 
but smaller ones may encounter greater difficulties. As a practical example 
of what can be done by small institutions in the promotion of the objects of 
the National Research Council, some results accomplished since June by 
Throop College of Technology, at the direct instigation of the Council, may 
be cited. The steps it has taken in connection with the work of the Council 
are as follows: 
Passage by the board of trustees of a resolution endorsing the objects of 
the Research Council and promising cooperation and of a second resolution 
providing that in the event of war with a first-class power all available research 
men and facilities required for the solution of problems of national defense 
or pubHc need may be counted upon by the Research Council. 
Provision of a new fund of two hundred thousand dollars as an endowment 
for research in physics. 
Appointment of Dr. Robert A. Milhkan as Director of the Physical Labo- 
ratory (under an arrangement with the University of Chicago by which he 
is to spend a part of each year in Pasadena). 
Organization of a cooperative attack on electron problems from the physi- 
cal, chemical, and astronomical standpoints, in which the physical and chem- 
ical laboratories of Throop College and the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory 
will take part. 
Provision of three research fellowships, yielding one thousand dollars each 
annually, to be awarded to men who have shown exceptional abihty in their 
research work for the doctor's degree. (Beloit College has also established, 
for a period of five years, a research fellowship yielding one thousand dollars, 
annually.) 
