The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-23
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC ;. HAsKnN. DirecDOr.
Washington. d. O.
NEVER TOO WISE TO LEARN.

nave started back TO SchooI Tor tAt
winter. On certain afternoons wher
the 1880 gong rings, zoo workers II
this department drop test tubes ano
calculations and turn their thought.
20 higher education. Glasses taught
by highly specialized experts in agri-
cultural science are being held ano
the scientist-students gather in ap-
pointed laboratories to add new wis
dom to their store.
i To understand how this may be
how some of the most competent OF
the country's specialists, out of college
/ perhaps twenty or thirty years. are
interested in going to schooi-you
must see the government scientist as
ne really is. Too often he has been
pictured as a learned, round Shout
dered, distracted sort of mechanism,
that occasionally climbs down from a
laboratory stool to describe his work
in a government bulletin.
A government scientist may have
correspondent more or less to this de-
scription a few decades back Nova
days the agricultural scientist looks
more like a business man, a college
professor, a real estate agent, or a
statesman. He is distinctly human,
and he may have a sense Of humor.
He is just as apt to remember to have
/ his hair cut as any other type of
citizen.
You cannot, imagine classroom
filled with ponderous sages with gro
tesque, abSent-minded mannerisms
Dul you Cdn P4CNuAE d VI hCSAA-
minded men. and women, coming to-
gether to learn about the latest
theories in some branch of their sci
ence as explained by an authority.
This little school of agricultural
science illustrates an interesting ten
dency in government policy. once,
college degree and the ability to pass
the technical civil service examination
were regarded as conclusive evidence
of a scientists fitness to hold his gov
ernment job for life. In some of the
departments a scientist was discour-
aged from asking for leave of absence
in order to go to a university and in
crease his knowledge of his subject.
He was made to feel that he was paid
to do a particular kind of work. and
if he did not know everything that he
nAeded to know in his position then
he was admitting Incompetence and
man in his place who knew all about
the science in question. In other
words, self satisfaction was urged upon
government scientists.
Education Never Completed.
Now. in the department of agricul-
leave their work occasionally and get
time off to improve themselves The
theory that education is never conf
pleted is being put into practice
This school was started only last
year, but it has already come to the
notice of scientists in different parts
of the country DR.. z. D. Ball, as
sistant secretary of the department,
says that because of these classes and
also because of the higher salary scale
now obtaining, the department now
has less trouble in getting the kind
Of men that it needs.
1--WE use 1000 scientists, the largest
scientific force of any department, OF
the federal government, outside of the
war department" says DR.. Ball. But
of late years we have had difficulty
in getting young men from the uni
Versities to take the civil service eX-
aminat.ons. Now, I am getting letters
from college students asking how they
should shape their courses in order
to enter the department and have the
scientific force of any department of
classes.
I'VE should haze the biggest scien-
tific men in Andrea to do the gov
ernment's work, and if we can get the
big men for leaders the young men |
will gladly come for the privilege of
working and studying with them"
That the classes are worth while to
the trained scientist is obvious from |
the kind Of teachers engaged. About |
men OF international reputation who /
come to washington each week from |
universities in New York and Balti- |
more. Other courses are conducted /
by outstanding experts from the de-
partment of agriculture, or from other /
scientific government bureaus, orr in
stitutions such as the National Re
search Council.
Post Graduate and Review Work.
There are two kinds of courses in
this school of science: Those that
post graduate work, and re-
view courses. Credit for the former is
being given by number of standard
The review courses are mainly ele-
nentary. A government scientist is
apt to be one of the most up-to-date
men in the country so far as his par
ticular speciality is concerned, but he
may not be so well posted on the work
being done in other branches of his
One government employe, an expert
in his line, is taking a review course
because he says that when he was in
college thirty years ago, chemistry
was entirely different from what it is
today with new theories and new lab
oratory equipment. Besides scientists |
some clerical workers in the depart
ment are admitted to the elementary
classes.
Courses in technical agricultural
writing and in elementary writing are
attracting large numbers of students.
reports and bulletins on his
lists regular tasks. Library science
md elsmentaSx statistics are also
popular.
Among the highly technical courses
ire such subjects as the chemistry of
,olloids and advanced crystallo graphy.
Of the latter class it is said that not
thirty men in che department. would
be qualified to enter. This Course
ieals with crystals in vegetable sub
stances and in fats and oils. Il
Doctor Ball says that these science
classes are not a pioneer attempt at
education in the government service
Vest Point and Annapolis represent
he earliest official attempts at edu-
alton by the United States govern
nent- There is the Army War collegel
o which army officers are detailed
or study of problems in tactics and
trategy, and there is the Army Med
cal school. 1