The Savannah morning news., 1901-06-03
CONGRESS OF ACADEMIES.
1T WILL BE PRACTICALLY =
CLEARING HOUSE OF kNOWL-
So EDGE.

The Congress May Parcel Out 10
Experts Any Subject of which Pro-
found investigation Is Desired-A
New and Improved VOlnpuk TO he
Observation-Disclosures Was the
Only Great Nation ScnntIy Repre-
scented at the Opening Session in
Paris.
Copyright, 1901, by V. Grbayedoff)
Paris, May 2o.-There has just been
held in Paris great reunion of learned
men. which, from its peculiar constitu-
ton and its important object has every
element of popular interest. The first
year of the new century has been fitting
ly signalized by the establishment and
first sessions of an international Con-
gress of Academies" The idea is that
there should be a body composed of re-
representatives. 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 move
ments and work of the world what the
what the famous institute is to France
and what. in another field, the District
of Columbia is to the United States. 1t
will be, 50 to speak, a general registry
office of learning and discovery; or, one
might put it, an International clearing
house of science. Its most important
function will be to keep tabs" In the
slang phrase. on the progress made in
81 md nv tax Of d
and thought all over the world it will
give official sanction TO discoveries; 1t
Will sum up the actual position of knowl-
edge in every subject, Indicate gaps-in
the sum-total of 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 clear
ing house in the commercial or indus
trial world enables a railroad company,
bank or a trust to compress so to
speak, the final result of a hundred vast
~ 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 will 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 put 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
authortatively 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 immensly the achievement of de-
finite gains TO knowledge. A given sub
ject 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 sub
ject duly studied, their results fitted to-
gether, will represent a definite and very
considerable. advance, Three men work
ing in coordination may in this way pro
duce IN a year what no single one OF
them working out every step alone
could accomplish in a lifetime. The diff
ference will be something like that ex-
listing between a writer who before set
ting to work had TO hew out his table
manufacture his paper and shape his
pen, and another who had all these things
made all ready for him and had nothing
TO do but sit down and write. 1t is not
too much to say that the whole move
Iment Of science and learning during the
coming century will be immeasurably
accelerated by this new institution
The idea realized in Paris is not a new
one. Benjamin Franklin advocated 1t in
Paris to Noltaire and the Encyclopedias
And long before him the great German
philosopher and scientist Leibnitz haC
proclaimed some such international en-.
tente cordiale or alliance of learned mer
an essential condition of progress. II
has taken 200 years to realize what seems
to be so simple and obviously useful q
uggtstion. Leibnitz might well have
been satisfied to see how warmly hi.
countrymen of this year of grace hav,
espoused his idea and how brilliantly
Germany was represented in the congress
But what Franklin would have said to hii
countrymen is more dubious; something
very vigorous, in certainty, If the OLE
patriot has not altered his ways since
he trod the earth. For, whatever the rea
son may be, the United States has al
lowed itself this once to be caught nap
ping when every civilized country ha
made a point of displaying the liyehes
practical interest only one American
savant was delegated to this epoch
ing assembly Professor Goodale-and b,
a singular piece of bad luck fell i'll II
Switzerland just before the reunion ant
was unable TO attend. There is no deny
ing the fact that American science Gu
a sorry figure in consequence. The score
of distinguished English, German. Rus
sion. Danish. French and Italian savant
must have been confirmed in the view
often stated in Europe, that as a natiol
we produce little but sensational practica
application of ideas not our own. that W
have no real scientific gift at all.
1t must not be supposed at all tina
the Congress Of Academies is to concer
itself only with such matters as electrici
~, biology and the other subjects gene
rally classed as scientific In the too eX
elusive, popular use of that word. Al
branches of learning and study fall within
its avowed scope; the antiquarian. tn
historian, the philologists will contribut
TO it's proceedings just as much and jus
os appropriately as the savant who spend
his DAYS over test-tubes hunting mic
robes down TO their lairs or who, lik
Edison or Marconi, lives for electrca
discovery.
The immense Importance Of the occa
sion may be judged from few name
picked at haphazard from the brillian
list of delegates. Among English savants
for example, there were the pick OF tn
Royal Society. men OF the widest fame
such as Professor A r. Forsyth, 81
Michael Foster. Sir Archibald CTeiklC
Professor Ray Lancaster, Sir Norma
I,ockyer. and half a dozen others al
most equally eminent. France OF course
was represented by long train Of no
.ahio algepfiets tho COmte de Iasteyrie