The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-04-02

MAAihdILlAH " HAN'
 HARDEN will continue SC to do if allowed to breathe again
 Countless millions in gold are needed for maintenance of foreign troops en German soil in an oecupa tien which harms victor and van quished alikN There comes an extra demand for b0,0oo, GOO, eee marks, the rapid collection of which would wrench the economic organization of the world, but there is no provision made therein for insuring productive scientific research. Is it not high time to ring the alarm bell and realize that the vital interests of hu- TIT Anity, rather than Germany. now are at stake?
 Business Needs Knowledge While the reparstiens commission in Paris was composing it's note or dering the German government tc raise 6o,0e0 ,o00,o00 marks within the next eight weeks and to provide for levying of 100, ,oee, GOO, 0e0 marks ir new taxes, Prof Albert Einstein, al Berlin university, was trying te prove to business men that scientific reseaFoh would be helpful to them Another professor was showing the advantage of a thorough Knowledge of chemical clements. which, he ar gued, would save many unnecessary expensive experiments. Still a third professor was showing the value oi understanding the laws of heredity As an example he showed that in Sweden the yield of wheat had been increased 4s per cent through seien' tifie mixing of seed.
 This. he claimed, proved that 1T Germany. where great difficulty ii ox ,ar ri in nrndnpfyar ar Staffioi atxi toodstuffs. there would be greatly Augmented yield of food grain, through the application of his sys. tenn. ufe gQ
 Cattle, poultry and game would all benefit by application of such theory And Possibly the same science might prevent the early decay of national civilizations.
 Increase Incomes
 The object of these experiments was to show business men who dc not always regard intellectual strength as of importance, that tho fires built on the altars of discovery may furnish the machines whereby incomes are increased and thus per suade them to support scientific re- search in world science.
 Does the world realize that German science is going begging? In all branches of investigation there today is distress never before dreamed of Baeterielogieal research in which animal experiments are necessary scarcely is possible. The most mis- erable dog costs 150 marks, a rabbit 70, a monkey 800. and the larger ami mals are held at a prohibitive figure Copper, nickel. zine, glass all are 3' times more than the pre-war figures and, with wages multiplied 20 times lit is easy to see what prices for scien- tific instruments are. As an instance microscope formerly costing 60G marks, today cannot be purchased for 2,200. An X-ray machine costs ,00s marks at the minimum. Current re- pairs for scientific instruments swal- low huge sums and the purchase of the most indispensable new devices for scientific research make an abys- nal hole in the budget of all insti- tutionsl Botanical and sociological mu seums, aausriams and organizations for health observation are obliged te close everywhere throughout Ger many because they lack money to keep up wages. Scarcely anything has been bought by them since 1914
 Materials Exhausted
 All reserve stocks of materials and tools are exhausted. Imported gold silver, platinum and quicksilver ap- paratus from the United States, Eng land, Scandinavia and ether countries meet a 70-fold and over increase in food" scientific publications, today are a luxury only for the rich. scien- lists today are considering selling their libraries rather than purchas- ing books Public libraries no longer are helpful. Thirty of the govern ment libraries, which, prior to the war. took 6,oo0 foreign technical pub ilcations, today get only 1000 and soon must discontinue even this num- Der.
 All books and journals published abroad during the war are lacking here. Filling the gaps at present prices is unthinkable. Yet they must be filled. German scientists need ac- tual knowledge of all progress made abroad in their special branches, and the world likewise ought to have the most complete knowledge of all that the German savants have been able to find out. Before the war more than ene-third of the scientific lit- erature of the world came from Ger many. Now the price of paper and printing Is so enormous and the mar ket 50 small that works of the great cSl Ndlut dIC hdHy Hcll known publications of medicine, hy- giene, economic, mathematics and philosophy have disappeared. When a publisher asks subsidy of 100000 marks for publishing mathema tical work the author must abandon the idea unless he is a millionaire. Such occurrences are daily.
 The peril to German science readily would be understood if the people of the world realized how scientists have been broken by their everlast- ing worries of how to get food for their families; of the lack of servants or money to pay them: of the pres sure of increasing taxes and of the necessity gradually to sell indispen- sable furniture to live. Students -scrape only a most miserable ex- istence by accepting all sorts of odd jobs. The loss to a single genera tion. through being compelled to do without needed scientific implements and to miss the careful educational facilities of past generations. never can he repaired