Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/599

Rh mankind, are too vast to be grappled by unaided individuals or even by private corporations. They can be solved only by the combined efforts of many trained experts, working with the best facilities and under systematic direction, a state of affairs which can only be brought about by governmental assistance. When that stops, science languishes; and the growth of every industry, public or private, dependent upon science, is checked. Since every modern government is necessarily in competition with other governments, either in the way of increasing its resources or perfecting its means of defense, it follows that aid to science is one of the factors essential to success; and that that nation which fails in far-sighted intelligence will lag behind in material affairs also. Science, both pure and applied, has become a necessity, upon which the welfare and very life of nations must depend. No nation can fairly expect to receive all the benefits of science while giving nothing in return. Even the narrowest utilitarian must see what vast results sprang from the niggardly public grant which rendered possible the first line of the Morse telegraph.

But how shall aid be given? At present, the scientific work of the Government is done in a somewhat scattered way, with more or less overlapping and duplication, and not always under the most favorable circumstances. Some things which ought to be done are neglected, as, for instance, the systematic investigation of pestilences, such as the cholera and yellow fever; others are done twice over by different executive departments acting independently. In the army and navy, apart from the strictly professional researches which the officers are peculiarly fitted to carry on, some scientific work is done in a decidedly amateurish way. Officers are sometimes detailed to make experiments for which they have no special training, and for which civilian experts should be employed; just as if military or naval rank conferred upon its holder an ex officio knowledge, applicable everywhere. A naval officer, staff or line, spends three years at sea. He returns to three years of duty on shore, quite rusty as regards pure science, and is ordered to take charge of some laboratory, or to conduct the preparation of some special scientific report. He goes to work as best he may, and after a while his services begin to have real scientific value. Then he is sent to sea again, and some other lately returned victim takes bis place. His best efforts are wasted, and science suffers; not because of his fault, but in consequence of a bad system. Fortunately, the system affects only a small part of our scientific services; for both army and navy employ specialists in various lines of investigation: as in the Weather Bureau, the Observatory, the Torpedo Station, and the preparation of the Nautical Almanac. Sometimes, however, it is anything but pleasant to see men of science of established reputation subordinated to some unscientific officer under the supercilious title of "civilian assistants." Full credit and responsibility should be given where they properly belong.