Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/854

830` and university professors can best gather in the summer, while the field workers in the United States Geological Survey are apt to be far away at that time, and can better convene in the winter or spring. So far as this department is concerned, moreover, and probably in others also, the number of papers offered for reading and discussion is amply sufficient to fill the whole available time of both the Geological Society and Section E of the association; and there is room enough and-work enough for all, without fear of conflict. The same is true of Section H and the Folklore Society, and of Section G and forestry; while the stimulus and the freedom of separate and special organizations tend strongly to the advantage of those branches of science, so long as there is co-operation with the general body of the association.

The question has some resemblance to that of State rights, or "home rule," and national unity, in American politics. Elements of advantage and of power there are, in local associations and local pride and local tradition, that are of the highest value, not only to the community that cherishes them, but to the entire nation, and which could not be developed under a centralized government, while they should never be carried to the danger of disintegration. So it is with the specialist societies: so long as they are willing and ready to co-operate with the broader work of the association, each can help the other in the interest of science as a whole.

Another change, of a different kind, has also taken place, and has perhaps weakened the association. Some years since there was organized the more advanced and select body known as the National Academy of Sciences, limited in number, confined altogether to men who had achieved important results, holding aloof from the more popular aspects of science, and standing at certain times in a somewhat advisory relation to the general Government. It had its prototype in the Institute of France, and admission into it is a distinguished honor. Here again was a natural outgrowth of the progress of science, for which the association had prepared the way, much as the college does for the university. But it is a matter for regret that, in many cases, the men who have reached the "inner circle" of the academy have thenceforth disappeared from the association, or at least from active interest in it. This is not a just course; the scientist has no right to withdraw himself from the needs and interests of the people, even under the plea of lofty devotion to science for its own sake. To any who are so disposed, whether consciously or unconsciously, the words of Professor McGee, above quoted, may be earnestly recalled, when he speaks of "science-builders, who have freely contributed their mental and moral riches to their younger and poorer fellows," and also the strong and wise expressions of