five distinct propositions were under consideration; to increase the efficiency of the navy; to establish engineering experiment stations; to aid schools of mines; to make an equitable adjustment of grants of lands for seminaries of learning or universities; and to found a national university. All these are worthy objects. Assuming they are devoid of all possibilities of abuse and extravagance, everyone interested in high education could conscientously and unreservedly support them all. He could encourage and help maintain a broad and comprehensive policy of support to education on the part of the central government, a policy broad enough to include within its range every line of education and research capable of adding to men's grasp of affairs and control over forces and phenomena. It should be a policy aiming at all times to meet the needs of both army and navy, for therein lie the beginning and the outward forms of defense, and the demands of commerce in its competition with all the world; the solution of the perplexing problems presented by transportation on land and sea; the development of the whole waterpower of the country; the long distance transmission of power; experimentation in the various lines of scientific work; the general diffusion of knowledge; the forming of a national university-for all these activities must receive encouragement and support. To maintain and carry forward in a constantly accelerating ratio such a plan of development and intelligent defense, the government must be possessed of large resources and a settled policy. Both are essential to successful work. Resources are not so easily commanded

now as formerly. All sources must be guarded and everything realized must be carefully husbanded. That any broad and reasonable policy can be a settled one, no one will doubt. The National Museum is a stable enterprise; so, too, is the Coast and Geodetic Survey, which was organized ninety years ago for purely scientific work, for a definite and practical end. This work has broadened its scope and increased its usefulness with each succeeding decade. It is proposed that the amount expended each year by the government in support of research work along the lines of applied science should be small. Compare, if you please, the original cost of a college and a battleship; place side by side the annual expenditure upon one floating fortress and the yearly bills of a firstclass technical school; consider how many schools of high standard can be supported at the cost of a single regiment of the army. My plea is not that no more battleships be built or regiments recruited; we need them both. But I do urge that, with every such ship put in commission or regiment mustered in, a fair amount be devoted to high education and research. Let it be known that not only along the two lines of defense that have come down to us from prehistoric times and barbaric conditions shall we protect ourselves, but that there is a third and still stronger line of defense builded in these modern days. The United States stands behind that defense, and is thereby making its position impregnable. Nature has been lavish in this part of the world. Almost every material resource and every force and phenomenon of nature are here afforded for the development of the highest character

the human race can reach. To attain a high standard requires most carefully matured plans and a well-digested, far-sighted policy of advancement. Ultimate America will not have reached her highest possibilities of national power and intelligence before she shall have become acquainted with every phenomenon of nature, and have come into perfect control of every force that it lies within human faculties to compass. Then when the whole of America, with all its capabilities and natural forces, is under perfect control, will the national defense be complete and the government will have secured that real conservation of energy which it is the duty of government to attain and preserve.

Much has already been done to attain this end. All praise to those who with loyalty of spirit and singleness of purpose have devoted themselves to the work. Not alone in the concentration of effort and unity of aim, as the government directs its energies, but also in the expert work which has been done in the interest of public defense and the dissemination of scientific knowledge. A bare allusion to the long list of experiments and their tangible and serviceable results is sufficent to show to all that the successes of the past are evidence of attainment in the future. Thus we may assert that loyalty gives service of the highest type.

How can government conservation be more thoroughly attained? How can all the intellectual activities at the disposal of the government be directed so that duplication and dissipation shall not result while the widest range of investigation, education and research shall be encouraged and promoted. Private munificence cannot compass national needs in educa

tional ways more than personal sacrifice through voluntary and unremunerated service in local militia regiments can defend against invasion, or the merchant marine can protect against foes by sea.

To secure such unity of effort, three ways present themselves:

1. The establishment of a Department of Education. 2. A re-organization of the present Bureau of Education with an enlargement of its powers and duties. 3. Placing all expenditure for educational institutions and experimental research under one department of the government and the appointment of an advisory board to act in an advisory capacity.

If the reorganization of the present Bureau of Education be decided upon, with the necessary enlargement of its powers and duties, the Commissioner can advise Congress to appropriate wisely.

A Secretary of Education with the powers that pertain to such an officer, would have sufficient authority to call in advisors and thus give the strongest possible arguments and reasons for the support of the several lines of education and research instituted by the government. He could prevent duplication and repetition in the several fields.

An advisory board, to be efficient, must be composed of men of the widest experience, highest character and broadest views. It should be a board representing the varied fields of education and research. The writer knows of no more worthy men to suggest for such a high and responsible position than the following: the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the Commissioner of Education, and the

President of the National Academy of Sciences. The stability and steadiness of such an advisory board will be seen when it is considered that the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution is a permanent officer, the Commissioner of Education is appointed for four years, and the President of the National Academy of Sciences is elected by one of the most intelligent and at the same time conservative bodies in the United States. Were others desired, that the Committee might consist of five or more members, they might be appointed by the President. To this advisory board should be referred all requests for governmental appropriation for the support of existing lines of educational work, scientific and technical lines of research, and all proposals for the extension of such educational work and research into new lines of activity. In this way the whole field can be taken into view, the bearing and possible results of each proposition can be considered, while the Secretary, through whom lies the disbursement of funds, can feel that he has the support of the highest authorities in educational work and that his recommendations to the President and Congress are supported by wisdom and intelligence other than his own.

Of the three propositions the writer would favor the third. What the country needs is government support, not government direction of education and research. Government direction is a bad thing; the thought of it is repulsive to the American spirit, and with it is at all times associated a sense of servility which is repressive to noble sentiment and the freedom of research.