work. Then we have to bear in mind that this nation is peculiarly given to extravagance. This is due largely to the optimism of the American people, a quality on which so much of America's success depends. But it has its drawbacks, like other good things, and the spirit of extravagance may yet drive us upon the rocks. "We must not forget that conditions are rapidly changing and that what might suffice for a past generation will not do to-day. A generation ago we could speak of our natural resources as practically unlimited, now we begin to see their end—at least in some directions. And apart from this we must recognize that under any circumstances waste is a sin and that the record of progress is largely the record of the elimination of waste. We shall have to make up for the diminution of our natural resources by new applications of science which will make ten blades of grass grow where one grew before, and by new inventions which will save fifty per cent, or more of the waste in most of our industrial processes. However, even without any new inventions we could easily make enormous savings by the proper use of existing knowledge. Let me give you a single example. A few years ago a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, trained in the department of biology, was appointed to an administrative post in one of the great cities. He invented nothing new, but merely joined common sense and executive ability to the scientific knowledge that his training at "Tech" had given him. Before long he had given the city a much better service than it had ever had before, and at the same time had saved it more than a million dollars each year. Suppose you multiply the million dollars thus saved by even a very small fraction of the thousands of men trained each year in the scientific institutions of this country and you may form some estimate of the saving grace of such institutions and of their value to the community.
I think, then, that there can be no question that you would have to put in a very large factor of usefulness, if you were estimating the value of such an educational institution as we are considering to-day—at least if you realize in any adequate degree the importance of scientific knowledge in public and private life. And, of course, a not unimportant element in such scientific knowledge would be a knowledge of physics, and under ideal circumstances this knowlege might be at least partially tested by Mr. Cooke's method, to which reference has already been made. It would, however, at best be only a partial test of knowledge, and it would neglect a great many factors of the first importance. May I remind you that knowledge is very far from being everything and that much of our educational work to-day and in the future must be to deliberately smash up the idol of knowledge. We are peculiarly prone to this form of idolatry in a scientific school, for science rightly lays a great stress on facts and their accurate apprehension. We are
