Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-01
ACADEMIC CONGRESS
Will Be the Clearing House Of
knowledge.
GENERAL EXCHANGE OF THOUGHTS
Its Experts Will Investigate All
Deep Questions.
Be the Clearing
knowledge.
OPENING SESSIONS IN PARIS
Copyright, 1901, by v. Gribayedoff.)

Copyright, 1901 by V. Gribayedof)
Written for The Evening Star by V. Gribayedoff.
PARIS, May 20, 1901.
There has just been held in Paris a great
reunion of learned men, which, from it's pc
culiar constitution and It's important object,
has every element Of popular interest. The
first year of the new century has been fit
tingly signalized by the establishment and
first sessions of an international Congress
Of Academies" The idea is that there
should be body composed of representa-
tives Of every great academy, institute,
university and scientific society of the
whole civilized world, all working together
in the general interests of every branch of
knowledge. The congress of academies
will be to the scientific movements and
work Of the world what the Royal Society
OF London is to England, what the famous
institute Is to France and what, in another
field, the District of Columbia Is to the
United States 1t will be, so to speak, a
general registry office of learning and dis
covery; or one might put it, an nterna-
tional clearing house of science It's most
important function will be to keep tabs
IN the slang phrase, on the progress made
in every highway and byway of research
and thought all over the world; 1t will give
official sanction to discoveries; it will sum
up the actual position of knowledge in ev-
cry subject, indicate gaps in the sum total
or achievement, organize Research on new
lines and enable isolated workers to avoid
wasting time and labor on lines already
fully explored.
Just as the Institution Of the clearing
mouse in the commercial or industrial
world enables a railroad company bank
or trust TO compress so to- sneak the
final result of hundred vastly complex
operations into one check, so the scientific
clearing house will sum up in one word
the result of the years work of hundreds
OF saVants working in every corner of the
earth. And, to vary the metaphor as in
the imagined socialist state all property
VIII be held in common and administered
for the equal advantage of all the citizens
so IN the congress of academies every
new acquisition to knowledge will be nut into
the common Golfer for the common use of all
The scientific worker in London or Berlin
Will be able to profit at once by the au-
thoritatively recognized net results of a
worker in the United States-or vice versa
And it will very often be found possible by
this coordination of work to quicken i'm
mensely the achievement of definite gains
to knowledge. A given subject may be
mapped out In sections of research, each
section being assigned to specialist
When all the specialists come together at
the end of a year or so. each with his own
part of the subject duly studied their re-
suits fitted together will represent a defin-
lite and very considerable advance Three
men working in coordination may in this
Of them working out every step alone
could accomplish In a lifetime The differ
ence will be something like that existing
between a writer who before setting to
work had to hew out his table, manufac-
ture his paper and shape his pen, and an
other who had all these things made all
ready for him, and had nothing to do but
sit down and write. 1t Is not too mnch to
say that the whole movement Of science
and learning during the coming century
will be UNNECESSARILY accelerated by this
new institution.
Advocated by Franklin.
The idea realized in Paris Is not a new
one. Benjamin Franklin advocated it in
Paris to Voltaire and the Encyclopa edics.
And long before him the great German
philosopher and scientist Lebnitz had
proclaimed some such international en-
tente cordiale or alliance Of learned men an
essential condition of progress. It has
taken 200 years to realize what seems to be
simple and obviously useful a sugses-
ton. Leibnitz might well have been salts
fled to see how warmly his countrymen of
this year or grace have eSpouSed his idea
and how brilliantly Germany was repre-
scented in the congress- But what Frank
lin would have said to his countrymen is
more dubious; something very Vigorous. in
certainty, if the old patriot has not altered
his ways since he trod the earth For
whatever the reason may be, the United
States has allowed itself this once to be
caught mapping when every civilized coun-
try has made point of displaying the
1iveliest practical interest. Only one Amer
lean savant was delegated to this epoch
making assem5ly-Prof Goodale-and by a
singular piece Of bad luck he fell i'll In
Switzerland just before the reunion and
was unable to attend. There is no deny
ing the fact that American science cut a
sorry figure in consequence The scores
OF distinguished English, German, Russian,
Danish, French and Italian sayants must
have hpen confirmed n ba Wiz,
stated in Europe, that as nation we pro-
duce little but sensational practical applt-
cation of ideas not our own, that we have
no real scientific gift at ALL
1t must not be supposed at all that the
congress Of academies is to concern itself
only with such matters as electricity biol
ogy and the other subjects generally classed
as scientific In the too exclusive, popular
use of that word AL branches of learning
and study fail within it's avowed scope. the
antiquarian, the historian. the phiiologist
will contribute TO its proceedings just as
much and just as appropriately as the sa-
want who spends his days over test tubes
hunting microbes down to their lairs or
who, ike Edison or Marconi, lives for cleo
trical discovery.
Savants and Scientists.
The immense Importance of the occasion
may be judged from a few names picked at
haphazard from the brilliant list OF dele
gates. Among English savants, for exam
pie, there were the pick of the ROYAL So
ciety, men OF the widest fame, such as
Prof A. r. Forsyth. Sir Michael Foster,
Sir Archibald Geikie. Prof. Ray Lankestcr,
Sir Norman Lockyer and half dozen others
almost equally eminent. France, of course,
was represented by long train of notable
scientists, the Comte de Lasteyrie, NJ Gas
ton Darboux, the Connie de Franqueyille. M.
Albert Sorel, to mention only four from
some twenty whose work is known all over
the world. Italy sent, among others. the
famous DR.. Mosso of Turin; Russia dele
gated DR.. Backlund, the eminent astron-
omer Of Pulkova, and every university OF
Denmark. Norway, Sweden, the German
empire and Austria was represented by one
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