The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-08-09
SCIENTISTS AND THEIR WORK
CaeI Snyder Interesting Back Dealing VIII Recent DiscOve

psychic law, as well as the exposure
| Of good many such frauds as Mrs. Ed
dy's followers have perpetrated on a
cOnhding public.
In the last chapter Prof Snyder asks
in an impassioned way why it is that
America has contributed so little to
scientific discovery, in comparison with
| Europe. and cites long lists of European
names against which few. or no. names
of Americans can he placed.
Good at Asking Questions.
He is better at asking than at an
swering questions, apparently. The
reason is not far to seek. The scientific
men of this country have been too busy
for the most part with practical ques-
tiOns to give their attention TO pure
science. Whether this is on the whole
a misfortune or not, the reader must
determine for himself. We have pop
ulation much less dense than that of
any European country. We have had 10
confront extraordinary obstacles in the
way of engineering. of irrigation, Of
agricultural Improvement, of manufact
!
a desert once considered as hopeless as
the Sahara; to cross mountains not long
ago regarded as impossible; TO Guilt
vate large tracts of land with few la
boreTs. The early American was COM
PEELED to invent machinery to do his
work because he could not get enough
hands to do il. His inventive genius
was taxed to the utmost In making him
self comfortable. There were large
practical returns in that direction.
Moreover. our population. speaking
largely. is not so rich in men of scien-
tifc temperaments as are some of the
nations of the Old World. The man
who comes to a new country as a pio
neer and the one who shuts himself up
in a laboratory to work out chemical
formulate are of opposite natures, and
our country has been largely peopled
with the more adventurous and prac-
teal elements of the Old World popula-
ton. The result of all this is that our
average man is more comfortable in his
home, has more mechanical appliances
about him. and knows how to use more
different kinds of machines. than the
man of the same station in France, OF
Germany or England; we have large
wealth OF one kind and another, and
we are beginning, but only beginning.
to put that wealth to some use in en-
downing chairs of independent research
and supporting universities in which
this. as we'll as the training OF young
men for ordinary life, will be a main
object.
Impatient of Theory.
A man so impatient OF theory as Prof
Snyder ought to be able 10 under
stand that people cannot be built up
| in hundred years. any more than the
greyhound Is the result of one genera
ton of breeding. II is only within
twenty years that independent research
has been seriously considered as a w.
cation by the American public, even tbs
intelligent public. Forty years ago TIE
men Of science and learning had TO earn
their bread by drilling raw boys In col
leges, and make their discoveries in
their leisure time-and the college pro-
fessor of that day had not much leisure.
Sixty years ago the educated man was
oIten sort OF jack at ali TRACES the
clergyman in a rural town might tutor
boys in Latin and Greek, make part OF
his living of a small farm. dairy and
poultry yard. serve as architect for his
own house and the church, and perhaps
act as surveyor in laying out the town.
How could such factotum as that d.
vote his attention to one subject, or how
could he impart the spirit of concentra-
tion to his sons? II was scientific i'm
possibility. (New York: Harper &
Prothers.J