The name is absent

Science After the War        321

large companies in the United States maintain large research
laboratories and employ many highly trained scientists.
They are finding that it pays to do so, and that it pays them
to get the best scientists. They even allow these scientists
to work, on lines of purely scientific research and to publish
the results in scientific journals. Science is becoming almost
respectable. The days of the traditional scientific professor
with long hair and shabby clothes are almost past. The
title of “professor” is out of date and may mean anything,
from a great savant to a piano-tuner. A certain Southern
gentleman was once talking to Booker Washington, and
did not quite know how to address him. He did not care
to call a colored gentleman “Mr. Washington” or to address
him as “Sir,” so, as he said, he just compromised and called
him “Professor.”

The increasing commercial importance of science is going
to raise its status in this country, but in American universi-
ties science has long occupied a satisfactory position.
Magnificent laboratories are provided and research work is
encouraged. On the whole, university scientists in the
United States have good reason to be satisfied.

Will the teaching of pure science in universities have to be
modified as a result of war experience? I do not think any
serious modification of the teaching of pure science in uni-
versities is indicated. Engineering teaching may need
change, but of this I am not competent to speak. There is
a growing opinion among university teachers in America
that more should be done to care for the needs of the best
students. There has been far too much attention paid to
the average student and too little to the best. The few stu-
dents who are endowed with exceptional abilities should not
be kept down to the average level, but special courses should
be provided for them and a large part of the energy of the

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