The Government Scheme for the Organisation and Development of Scientific and Industrial Research

Abstract

THE proposal to establish a permanent State-aided organisation for the promotion of scientific research, with a view to its applications to trade and industry, is a most hopeful sign of the times, and will be welcomed in principle by scientific workers generally. But, inasmuch as any such scheme necessarily implies a certain amount of State control and direction of scientific research, and, ultimately also, of the large body of scientific workers who will be brought within its ambit, there are certain important matters to be considered and settled in principle at the outset, if the scheme is to be as fruitful and successful as it ought to be. I venture, therefore, in the spirit of a friendly critic and well-wisher to the scheme, to submit to your readers the following paragraphs embodying some of the points which seem to me to need very careful consideration, in order that the freedom and interests of individual scientific workers shall be sufficiently safeguarded and conserved.