THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION.
The trustees of the Carnegie Institution held their second annual meeting at Washington on December 9. Nothing that has become known in regard to this meeting will tend to allay the anxiety with, which men of science are watching the administration of this great trust. It is reported that Dr. Oilman presented a letter to the trustees announcing his intention to resign the presidency at the close of next year. The institution will consequently drift along for another year, and its immediate future will in large measure depend on the president then chosen. There is no reason to doubt the ultimate outcome, and even the present conditions are only what might have been expected. Special creations are no longer regarded as feasible. The reply may be called to mind of the little boy, who on being asked who made him, said 'God made me one foot big, and I growed the rest.' A new foundation such as Mr. Carnegie's can only gradually become a true organism adjusted to the environment.
Mr. Carnegie's original plan of establishing a research university at Washington was comparatively plain sailing. The trustees are now divided as to policy, some wishing to establish certain laboratories at Washington, and others perferring to distribute subsidies throughout the country. The latter plan has been adopted; it has the obvious advantage of not committing the institution as to the future. No special objection can be made to the way the subsidies have been allotted. It is quite certain, for example, that the Harvard, Lick, Yerkes, Dudley and Princeton Observatories can spend to advantage any money that may be entrusted to them. Almost any grant for research made to men of science of established reputation will bear fruit a hundredfold. There is, however, an obverse to the shield. Such grants inhibit individual initiative and local support; they are likely to produce a certain subserviency to the powers that deal out money, and may lead to jealousy and intrigues.
It is perhaps scarcely fair to object to a board of trustees consisting chiefly of prominent politicians, lawyers and business men, who meet once a year, and can not be expected to give much attention to the affairs of a scientific institution, nor to have much knowledge of its scope and possibilities. Such boards are an established American institution, controlling universities, banks, etc. Their principal duty is to select efficient officers of administration. But the Carnegie Institution has been unfortunate in its first officers. Three men were largely instrumental in persuading Mr. Carnegie to make the original gift, and they have assumed control of its administration. This triumvirate has been at the same time autocratic and feeble, and has by no means worked in harmony. Antony may be supposed to say to Octavius:
And though we lay these honors on this man,
To ease ourselves of divers sland'rous loads,
He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold.
To groan and sweat under the business.
Either led or driven, as we point the way;
And having brought our treasure where we will.
Then take we down his load, and turn him off.
Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears,
And graze in commons.
Whether after the ensuing war Antony, Octavius or another will or should become Cæsar need not here be considered; but in the meanwhile and perhaps thereafter science will suffer. The fundamental difficulty is that no method has been found for consulting the consensus of opinion of scientific men. An American university has an absentee board in nominal control and a president as benevolent despot; but there is a faculty, which after all is the real university. The Carnegie Institution has no similar body; and until it is formed, it will drift along without compass or rudder.
