AMERICAN SCIENCE 
35 
render phosphate rock soluble and available for the growing plants. 
The soil, accordingly, is also suffering from starvation and will 
not produce the usual crops. Here is an opportunity for the co- 
operation of scientists in restoring the land to normal conditions. 
Among the civilized nations we are almost the only one to escape 
with our material resources unimpaired. Indeed, in some lines, 
we have almost the only raw materials that escaped destruction 
in the war. Shall the American people rise to the occasion and 
realize our great responsibility and our matchless opportunity in 
the matter of advanced learning and productive scholarship? 
Material wealth is an important factor, but it is only one element 
that makes possible productive scholarship on a vast scale. Will 
American public sentiment sustain the scholar, as in a measure he 
must withdraw from the public view, and spend his best years in 
his library or laboratory? Eong years of training are imperative 
to develop the scholar who can achieve enduring results. 
In Germany before the war, the man who had earned the doctor 
of philosophy degree had hardly made a beginning. With a 
meager compensation he must serve the department head long 
years as assistant. When promoted to the rank of PRIVAT DO- 
CENT his salary, if possible, was still smaller. But he had ample 
opportunity to study and investigate under the stimulating influ- 
ence of the great teacher. If he was successful, in the course of 
the years, he would attain the rank of extraordinary professor, 
and after a time, and no longer young, he might attain the goal 
of his ambition, and himself become the head of the department 
with the proud title of professor. 
German society and the Imperial German government would 
applaud the man who would choose such a career. He would be 
patted on the back and those high in authority would say to him, 
“well done good and faithful servant.” Society would erect to his 
memory a monument of as fine and pure a marble, and it would 
pierce the blue as high as any ever erected to distinguished states- 
men, generals or admirals. 
We would grow impatient under the prolonged period of train- 
ing and would demand more immediate results. And yet since the 
war, there has been a change in the public sentiment in the United 
States. There has been a keener appreciation of science and the peo- 
ple are more alive to its wonderful possibilities. More of our citizen- 
ship realize as never before the value of training and education, 
especially the kind that educates. The people are in a plastic, re- 
ceptive mood, as they understand that the war was won not so 
