hatic in their insistence upon the importance
of research of a more fundamental character. Thus Vice-President
J. J. Carty, of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, who
directs its great Department of Development and Research, and Doctor
W. J. Whitney, Director of the Research Laboratory of the General
Electric Company, have repeatedly expressed their indebtedness
to the investigations of the physicist, made with no thought of
immediate practical return. Faraday, studying the laws of electricity,
discovered the principle which rendered the dynamo possible. Maxwell,
Henry, and Hertz, equally unconcerned with material advantage,
made wireless telegraphy practicable. In fact, all truly great
advances are thus derived from fundamental science, and the future
progress of the world will be largely dependent upon the provision
made for scientific research, especially in the fields of physics
and chemistry, which underlie all branches of engineering.

The constitution of matter, therefore, instead of appealing as
a subject to research only to the natural philosopher or to the
general student of science, is a question of the greatest practical
concern. Already the by-products of investigations directed toward
its elucidation have been numerous and useful in the highest degree.
Helium has been already cited; X-rays hardly require mention; radium,
which has so materially aided sufferers from cancer, is still better
known. Wireless telephony and transcontinental telephony with wires
were both rendered possible by studies of the nature of the electric
discharge in vacuum tubes. Thus the "practical man," with his distrust
of "pure" science, need not resent investments made for the purpose
of advancing our knowledge of such fundamental subjects as physics
and chemistry. On the contrary, if true to his name, he should
help to multiply them many fold in the interest of economic and
commercial development.

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