Evening Star Newspaper, July 18, 1926, Page 39

. OF WORK IN PURE SCIENCE Means of Sustaining Applied Branch Sought in Endowment to Aid | Exlierts"in Research. BY WILLIAM 8. ODLIN, O TEE man in the street there is a mildly mysterious impli- lon in the term ‘“‘pure sci- ence.” The lone word ~_ence” has in the passage of the lost most of its terrors for. the y mind, and the meaning of applied sclence, through many diversified ex- amples close at hand, has become comprehensible to the average in- tellect. But what is pure sclence? Many years ago a Frenchman, Reau- mur, became fascinated by the life habits of wasps, particularly their astonishing method of constructing papery nests. those gray, cone-shaped mysteries of the trees so vividly re- membered by barefoot lads who had the ill-advised urge to investigate with & pointed stick. v to keep pace with the-growth of stu. dent bodies, and, as faculties could not be increased proportionately and teaching and administration duties . | pressed, research languished. Official cognizance of the situation was taken by the National Academy of Sclences at its Jast annual meeting. At that time, this body, composed of the 250 leading scientists of the coun- try, determined that aggressive action toward a remedy should be taken without delay. Accordingly there was appointed a special board of trustees to collect and administer a National Research Endowment of '§20,000,000 to be disbursed over a period of 10 years in the fostering of pyre science. The chairmanship was intrusted to Her- bert Hoover and assoclated with him a score of the leading men of the both scientists and others. Reaumur’s curlosity beguiled him | my,a, Into methodical investigation of how tua insects so readily produced such adequate and marvelous homes. He found that it was merely by the mas- tication and exgurgitation of bits of Wwood and other vegetable substances. Interesting, but what of it? Merely this: From Reaumur’s studies and the report of his findings has come about the colossal industry of paper manu- facture from wood pulp which brings to every human being who can read a daily record of what his fellows are about. The newspaper, as known throughout the world today, could never have arrived without cheaply Manufactured news print and that ‘without the discovery, that didn’t seem very important at the time, of an ob- bcure Gallic botanist. ‘Were in Pure Sclence. Reaumur’s idle speculations were in fhe realm of pure science, or more re- ionniln;ly. fundamental scientific re- advantage galned R necessary basis established through ental research in pure science by men who Had no other object than to ascertain the truth,” asserted Elfhu and already several millions "have been subscribed to the fund, Seeks to Increase Knowledge. 1In its broad aspects the platform of the. National Research Endowment is: cause of the intellectual and spirit: value of adding to knowledge and be- cause the greatest advances in'sclence and in industry often result from ap- parently useless abstract discoveries, That sclentists exceptionally quali- fled to widen fundamental knowledge through research are of such value to the Nation that every effort should be PP the United States are far below what our. population, education and mar demand. ing investigators in the closely inter- locked and mutually dependent mathe- matical, physical and biological sciences, is' peculiarly qualified to evaluate the needs of pure science in America, to stimulate its progress and to insure the wisest use of funds pro- vided for research. Experts to Be Chosen. The plan of campaign provides for the selection of the ablest and most productive _investigators. in pure - | sclences and the furnishing to them world, but in pure science other na- tions were far ahead. ' Research an plied sclence, with untold millions of great industrial and other enter- rises at their command, were fed on &e fat of the land. Pure science took e “leavin’s.” Scientists Saw Need. Clvilization advanced at a pace er hitherto approached in the his- ry of the world and the many felt all was well. But the few, America's Bclentists of every descrip! knew better. They knew that should the stepbrother, pure science, languish and die through malnutrition, indus- by fi 3 * ovas upon the bits of food he brought o the board: that the big brothers of the family depended for sustenance. In other words, it was only when re sclence found a fundamental ural truth that its corollaries could te it into practical ness. Search for the cause of the indis- rapid evolution that is going on in the lucational institutions of the Nation. e phenomenal growth of their stu- @dent bodies, endowments and Een- eral achlevements has been hailed as & great national blessing. But there was another side to the picture. This growth was the real, ynderlying rea- . son for the dangers besetting pure sci- snce. A generation ago, with much ler student bodies, the faculties $earch. But financial resources failed cumstances of such assistance as they may need in making their work most effective. ‘When they have presented their plans d | for research, stating their exact needs, 3t 'rj,-;nm-ue‘uw. but. be. yond dispute—that, outside the South Sea : the. English people are the laziest (or shall I say the most leisured?) on earth. 5 - This may surprise some of my readers and as part of our social system. These is, for instance, no other country in the ‘world outside the British' dominions which has the weak end holiday. Here, in most regarded almost as a religious law. S There are many men 'in this country, some tens of thousands, who have carried the phi- losophy of laziness so far that they abstain from work altogether as a thing abhorrent to their bodies and souls, and they live. not with any greap margin of luxyry, indeed with consider- able self-sacrificing and hardship—as a matter of principle—on the dole and the: relief public bodies and ‘charitable institutions. . e . ! TThere is also, growing. up a younger gen tion of men—-hardly more than boys who have never acquired thie habit of and regard it as a moral disease ‘which, so far, they have been merciful There is a good deal to be said osophy of life, provided that life ble under such a faith, The worst of it is that in it is sometimes necessary to work or. I am convinced, most unhappily, English people as a nation do not beautiful privilege of laziness, then FEL g i i 3 gil & g H T 13 £z £3 and old grannies, stooping over the earth, tend- ing every inch of it, weeding, Hoding, watering, harvesting. such as piore time for research, the|, ald of scientific assistants, instruments or accessories, appropri- ations will be made for fixed periods of years, subject to remewal if cir- rrant. ‘The univefities and other institu- tions with whick these investigators may be connected will be expected to co-operate to the fullest extent by as- suring complete sympathy with re- search, relief from excessive demands of teaching or administration, and the furnishing of laboratory, instrumental by rendering the career of research more" productive, and thus more at- tractive, it will draw into graduate BY HENRY W. BUNN. HE following is & brief sum- mary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ended July 17: The British Empire.—Says Churchill at the lord mayor’s ban- uet: 2 “Underneath the confusion and gen: eral industrial check of the coal stop- page there are signs of a distinct and wvival of aapite the general coal stoppage, de- work many brilliant students who| 009 now are lost to sclence. Mayhap there may be produced by an in- finitesimal of the endowment Industry, or a Copernicus, a Huxley say: el “I weigh my words when I say that if the nation could purchase a poten- tial Watt, or Davy, or Faraday, at the cost of £100,000 down, he would be dirt cheap at the money. It is a mere commonplace and eve piece , of Pasteur, a Newton, a alileo. sense of the word.” ACCURATE SUNDIAL DISCOVERED | SHOWS SKILL OF ANCIENT MAYAS [Astronomical Feats of Long-Heralded People Up- held by Finds of Smithsorian Experts in Jungles of Yucatan, BY HAROLD K. PHILIPS. ‘Archeology seems bent upon knock- Sng the concelt smack out of this rather self-satisfled modern era ‘we have manufactured. And the lat- est demonstration of this aspiration comes not from the mausoleum of mome Egyptian pharoah, but straight from the mossy depths of Yucatan's Sungles, striking at the very heart of pur pride—intellectual achievement. A little group of scientists, care- fully digging the dust of centuries from the deserted metropolis which America’s greatest aboriginal culture builded about the dawn of the Ch tian era, have unearthed an amazing cture which has been definitely roved to have been an astronomi observatory, and a series of monu- ments which probably will take prec- pdence as the world’s largest sun- The site of this discovery is at Chichen Ttza, the religious capital of the Maya civilization, and it was un- gerthed by archeologists from the Carnegle Institution of Washington, which has fust issued the official an- mouncement of the find. It solves, too, the mystery that heretofore sur- i m\ll‘llo calendar the Maya created, ich covs::m favorably withour pwn calendar. Noted for Skill. It had long been known that the Maya people were for their times— the first six centuries of the Chris- tian era—one of the most pkilled nations of ris- | this could nded the origin of the amazingly |. servation chamber in the top, was in effect an astronomical observatory. 8o Mr. Ricketson made a series of ob- servations on the setting sun through a small, stonelined passage in the tower, a passage 8 feet long by 2% feet wide and 13 high. Found Data Tallled. By sighting along the passage, he observed day by day the morthward journey of the sun. Finally, on March 21, the day of the vernal equi- nox, he found that his line of sight exactly bisected the sun’s disk. That scarcely be the result of chance was proved when other lines of sight, taken through other pas- ical ¢ sageways in the same tower, ylelded simil other astronomical data of ture and equal importance. * These body, were in reality definite lines of sight, ~ lenseless ~telescopes, so to fashioned by. the anclent May=m priests to enable them to ® accu- rate astronomical calculations. . observatory, the oldest structure of its kind on the American continent, as least. Additio: primitive scientific ar- rangements’ were found at Uaxactun, another Maya. city, which flourished ~ 68 AD. to It was 630 A.D. here that the gigantic “sundial” was highly | ¢ the ts astonishing records of eclipses, | e ‘equinoxes and solstices, revo'u- L RN g Bl ents o - and other. astronomical to royal prestige - profound - effects outside of | Belgium might well ensue. ‘The ' Belgian franc of | having a little worse even than the French franc. G. Morley, in charge of the Carnegle Institution’s researches in Middle American_ archeology, ~ that these monuments may have been of as- tronomical value to the inhabitants of Copan. - A bable, , 88 NOW &) to the day, as ppears Sor developed the impartance dates in the solar year. April 9, it is believed, was the offl- nning’ of the agricultural tlement of the Dr. Morley, accompanied by John Lindsay, of department of ter- restgial ) the &rl.{h In- stitution; Joseph Linden Smith, ‘the famous_painter of archeological sub- jects; Dr. homas Gann of the Uni- versity Lt and R. A Franks, jr., of New York City, visited with full sets of instruments 83 8 , One no longer beggars, lazy scamps, sleeping ' philosophers lying about the sun- baked .. -Bven dirt is disappearing, s nation, puts pi up, cripples industry, creates unemployment. With a larger output and cheaper prices in the markets employment increases, and prosperity increases. ‘We can make up our mind to one thing or pose that, fault up to 50 not reconsider the per cent, we would | tory in that event. Franoco- greater natl prosperity, lots of money to spend, by abolishing' that limitation of output~ which is the curse of industrial England from an economic point of view, and working a little longer and a little harder, not only in the lower ranks of our social life but in all ranks. JIt is the secret of American wealth which some of us envy, though we profess to dislike it as a nasty, vulgar thing. * In the United States wages are rising all the time. The standard of living, in a material way, is vastly higher than our own. Every family has its automobile, -and many : other amenities and luxuries. It is done by speeding; up' production. The “speeding-up” 1s too severe in some of their factories. They exaggerate that side of things, and the rich American often has no time enjoy his money. But adopting the policy of the middle of the road, we should go half-way in their direction, or a little more than half. It is; I am certain, the only solu- tion to our Iabor troubles. . CER e Don't let wages be red . dragging down the standard of living, and limiting the expenditure of the individual upon ‘which the general prosperity of the nation depends. Let wages be higher, if production is increased and cost reduced. Instead of cursing capital, let every workingman be a capitalist, as most of them are in the United It would, of course, spoil the fine art of laziness which we have acquired as a national habit. In some ways it would be a loss to the charm of our leisured life. But it would help us to survive in a world of &ompetition—and that seems worthwhile. (Copyright. 1926.) b(md:,’ the | sational of finishes, the redoubtable Bobby Jones won by a single stroke pen golf championship of the his.second vic- t Stamford England, on Al Bridge, agreement in quite as benevolent & |yu1y 10 the Oxford-Cambridge track spirit as Britain would reconsider | s fo, 0 Oxfond Cumbridgs ek the Franco-British agreement under | princeton team, 7-5, only firsts count- like circumstances? The French Parliament adjourned from July 19 to July 15, while Caillaux the British. should conclude ing. As usual, the Britons showed themselves superior in the middle and long distance events, those requiring affair. | the stamina. Last year at greater ‘The battle is now on again furiously | Princeton an Oxford-Cambridge team, to determine the fate of the govern- |after being beaten by a Yale-Harvard ment's program. combination, trounced a Cornell- ‘The franc dropped to another “low- | Princeton team to the tune of 913 est ever” on July 16-—namely, 2.34%. |to 22-3. It stood at ing on Friday ‘The night. maximum legal limit of ad- of France to |six hundred 000,000 francs. | grated - from the Bank 500, German; advanced on July 14 was | against 58,800 in 1924. francs. The maxim: ‘vances from. the state is 39, ‘The total 37,800,000,000 legal limit of note cirtulation is |cubic feet is being built in Ge: 58,600,000,000 francs. has been be- and his superb * icently ent 2.36% at New York clos- The amount circulation July 14 was 54,917,995,000 calds and pashas D e suera” ot 100 | ble of the Norge type with & capacity men, is visiting France and is being nE X ¥ Miscellaneous —Sixty-two thousand, German nationals e y in 1925, um | A dirigible of a capacity of 3,500,000 rmany in | for commercial use. The tiwo dirigi- bles being built in England to fly be- tween Britain and India have each a| - | capacity of 5,000,000 cubic feet. Italy thinks of building a semi-rigid dirigi- of 2,000,000 cubic feet. Good news from Italy. Mussolini tertained. Abd-el-Krim is about to be banished | has ordered a “psychological demobi- to_the Island of Reunion. During lization” of the Italian people. The the week a beautiful mosque | newspapers must stop publishing “in- was dedicated in Paris, and a mussul- man institute opened. It's a far cry|alive the bellicose terminology Morocco has been signed. *x % ¥ Turkey.—The other day 13 Turks, | $he. momey: comime S purmp including high notables, convicted of . against the life of Mus- o e ol s Pasha, were hung | for nervous diseases (if days of consp! tapha materigl - tending ' to keep and t.” 8o, as from of old, today we blow hot, tomorrow cold. Italian crop forecasts are discouraging. The lira is behaving very badly, the economic looms ever bigger. Whence is the Pilsudskl is out of the sanatorium indeed he was on 18 gibbets on Smyrna’s water front. | ever there). But there are indications of women fought for, the ble of wimen ot that, having furnished a rather ridicu- , as tl to give cluding some very. great ne Fasta Both (of dublous tame). Kavut ublous uf| sudski is not “looking for trouble,” n.‘:m premier under Kemal, and| eager to exercise dlehtorr'i,:l g husband of possession is supposed| incapacity, he has made himself small good luck. Twenty more Turks i o to sive good luck. Twenty and is fading into “innocuous desue- P {:: m'd:l." ‘.:ppan;&ly Parliament is re- “{suming its constitutional prerogatives Djemal|and the government xnswlodog; Pil- power, Halide | but the dispatches do not enable one to speak with confidence. ‘The treaty of amity between those| . The Kemmerer Commission has ar- enemies of the. bitterest, ‘Turkey and Persia, is one of the most important developments days. A rapprogchement Kemal and Ibn Saud, and boss of Arabia, is reported. into genuiné| tween that remnant (apparently con- to pay annuities over it ‘war debt Britain between Sultan of Nejd rived at Warsaw and is vigorously at wufih rould would seem that the job of liquidating ~ the remnant njra 0‘:9 Kuominchun (“National People's Army” of China) is far from Gomplete, If| Continuous fighting is, reported be- of recent Imltihl. N | siderable) on the one side and com- of Wu Pel-Fu and Chang in ':n' t&o other. ' Despi ' e surface M ders Rizga | China's foreign trade, according to re- port by the . ‘of the Chinese of Mexico of xnm:b-: on the direct ex- | ternal debt; an same as to apan Soon to Take Up Emigratioh Qumfion PLANS PRESAGE SUCCESS Administration Expects Important Re- sults From Honolulu Sessions on Education Next Spring. BY JOSEPH A. FOX. UIETLY and without ostenta- a 1 ing of a pan-Pacific conference on education, rehabilitation, reclamation and’ recreation at Honolulu, next Spring. The matter is one that has been | ® hanging fire for months, the initial grn to hold the gathering this year ing abandoned when it was decided that more time was needed to make the necessary arrangements. With the last obstacle removed, however, when President Coolidge signed thé Joint resolution a: the con- ference, on his trip to the itol just before Congress , arrange- ments now can go forward for sum- moning representatives of the Pacific countries to Hawall next April or May, the tentative dates chosen for the conference, to discuss their mu- tual problems. Work Originated Plan. The idea of such a meeting had its inception about a year ago, Secretary of the Interior Work, who will be in public and private auspices, includ- ing the extensive n. works the o - ation {t is planned to include national their establishment and con- trol for public service. The Hawail tional Park furnishes a nucleus about which the specialists from our own country, Canada, New Zealand, A , Japan, China and other na- tions of the Pacific area may appro- priately assemble and gain much benefit through exchange of experl- This letter was /laid before the Seénate committee on territories and insular possessions and the House foreign affairs committee, where the resolution was considered, and with it a tentative agenda for the con- ference prepared by Commissioner of Education Tigert. ‘The main topic under the program contemplated will be the exchange of educational ideas and under this head- ing will be studied ways of bringing about wider and more rapid exchange of educational thought and practice through— = (a) Establishment and maintenance of centers for the exchange and dis- tribution of adequate transiations of laws, decrees, texts, publications, etc.. (b) Exchange of lecturers, teachers, students, research workers and. others interested or actively engaged in edu: charge of the preliminaries, broach-| cgtio) ing the subject to President Coolidge. A Farcingion, pevernos ot Hawall, X m, governor and John J. Tigert, commissioner of education, Secretary Work decided this Spring that the time was ripe to act, and upon communicating his views to President Coolidge was ad- vised that the executive favored the movement and would approve an ap- propriation of $20,000 necessary to care for the expenses of the United States in this project. At _the instance of the Secretary of the Interior’s office, the needed legis- lation then was introduced by senator Hiram Bingham, Republican, of Con- necticut, a member of the Senate eommittee on territories and insular possessions, who is a close student of Hawailan , by the way, having been the land of his birth—and a day or so before Congress went home passage was completed. In writing to Senator Bingham, while the resolution was pending, Gov. Farrington, who heartily is behind the project, declared that in his opinion the conference will “one of the most important and effec- tive international assemblies that has ever been held in the great Pacific Ton.™ cx Great Benefits Expected. It was the Hawaiian governor, too, who in the letter brought out the actyating motives for the assembly when he said “I am sure that the people of our country will enjoy very marked benefits from this conference and it will go far toward emphasizing the fact that the United States is interested at all times in co-operating with its neighbors of the Pacific area in the promotion of peaceful arts and pursuits.” wa:plllf!‘l.B‘ his views, Gov. Farring- n d: “Honolulu has been the center of 2 number of conferences, scientific, educational and compmercial, held dur- rivate aus: brought into contact representatives from nearly all of the countries of the Pacific, and valuable service has been rendered the cause of better un- derstanding - through exchange of. ideas on common problems. A con- ference called by the Secretary of the Interior would immediately enlist the unhesitating interest of the officials and leading authorities in the princi- pal countries of the Pacific, thereby bringing together for conference the outstanding leaders engaged in the activities mentioned. Education Is Stressed. “Education naturally holds first po- sition because facility of speech and uniformity of educational methods must have first place in the promo- tion of understanding between peo- ples of varying race and language. Education plays an important part in fostering friendly associations. result- ing from extension of trade and trans- portation. It is contemplated that special attention should be devoted to vocational education, o that ideas ob- tained from the . representatives of various countries may be made use of for development at home. “Hawaili has always been recog- nized as an interesting laboratory where the influence of education and friendly race associations have been evidenced under most favorable cir- cumstances. * ilitation and reclamation comprehend the efforts that are being made in nearly every country border- ing on the Pacific to attract those qualified to occupy agricultural lands, and through co-operation of the gov- ernment agencies make available for cultivation land areas hitherto re- as i New Zealand, , some of the South American countries, Japan and have departments of government en- gaged in working out this problem. Hawaii has within its borders in esting demonstrations under - both presen China | ed by the Secretary of the Interior, n; (¢) The formulation of principles and standards for credential accept- and evaluation. blishment and preservation of national standards for child life, through— Care of Mother and Child. (a) Proper care of the mother and the infant; ; (b) Furnishing a certain minimum number of years of instruction and requiring the child’s attendance. (c) Instruction in health habits and provision of proper recreation. Making the common school common to all throtigh national guarantees and laws fixing certain minima. ‘The next general topic is relations in professional training and in re- search, under which will be taken up vocational education— (a) The place of vocational tion in the general educational pro- gram; (b) Government plans for stimula- tion of vocational education. Under the general title of reclama- be | tion the following will be studied: (a) The social and colonizing aspects of reclamation; : (b) How far should the State go in alding the homesteader without re- tarding individual initiative; educa- ™ () The relation of marketing agen: cles to the successful settlement of public lands; Phases of Industry. (@) What s the function of the State in connection with planting con- tracts and the homesteader’s dealings. with the mill or cannery at which his product is handled. (This would give rise to a discussion of whether can- neries, sugar mills, and similar manu- facturing plants could properly come under a phase of control not unlike that exercised over a public utility. A condition bordering on this exists in Hawaii today on the sugar planta- tions and on some-of the pineapple areas, the outline of the agenda ex: © .l% thods for extending publi e or e credit to homiesteddl development en-. terptises. The final general session of the con- ference would be on recreation, and. under this there are four avenues of inquiry outlined: (a) How to get the best and fullest use of the parks for recreational and educational purposes; (b) How to conserve plant and ani- mal life in the parks; ol(c) Administration and management parks; (d) The relation of the Government. to individual effort. . Results to Be Expected. The four oustanding accomplish- ments that are envisiongd to come: from such a conference also are sum- med up in'the Senate report on the resolution to-authorize it as follows: (1) It will furnish an excellent medium for exchange of knowledge between the United States and th Pacific countries on the subjects un- der discussion. g (2) It will make clear to our Pa: cific neighbors, that the United States is interested in co-operating with them in the promotion of peaceful arts and pursuits. 3 (3) It will afford a wider fleld of service for the technical activities of. the Interior Department. (4) It will be instructive and highly beneficial to the Territory of Hawali. The legislation authorizing the con- ference -allows the Secretary of the. Interior to extend through proper channels invitations to “such coun- tries as in his judgment it is appropri- ate to have represented at such con-- terence,” which insures a compre- hensive invitaiton list. ‘This Government will be re, it- commissioner of reclamation, commis- sioner of education, director of nat ter- | tional parks, and a corps of technical Women of Mysterious Sahara Tribe - Enjoy Unusual ‘wandering desert tribel go velled and Outin‘th-eontnlkhnmfln Freedom of Action- well developed script when thefr' daily life calla for no need of wflun; s, Mr. points out, exceedingly i it =