During the past few days many statements have been current about the importance, for material well-being, of the organized direction of science in the future. Various schemes have appeared for organizing research and directing the men of science. Everyone acknowledges the importance of employing science to improve material conditions; but at the same time one rarely hears of the importance of science as a branch of general culture — or considered as natural philosophy.
While it seems plain that the faculties of science in our universities stand in need of a greater measure of assistance, the reason that commonly spoils the case for supplying them with this assistance is that they are the training ground of the technicians of the future. But the universities are the places that ought to allow men chosen with care the time and the fitting circumstances to satisfy in freedom that lofty curiosity about the workings of nature — the work that created for us Newton and Faraday — and to hold up to young men ideals other than mere refrigerating machines of larger size and better make.
It is true that Newton and Faraday devoted some of their time to practical problems; but the glory of British science in the eyes of the world — and reputation is a material asset — would not have been
lessened had Newton made no contribution to the improvement of the coinage, or Faraday to the production of steel...
As it happened, most of the great industrial developments to which science has contributed, if not all of them, appeared in the course of idealistic researches pursued for the sake of knowledge alone. It was Clerk Maxwell's researches into the nature of light that guided us to wireless communication; J. J. Thomson's researches on the electron led us to the various great branches of the electrical industry; and it was Rutherford's interest in radioactivity that brought us in the end to the release of atomic energy. No one can say what we stand to gain from allowing certain men to think and to carry out experiments as their own minds prompt them. And even if no great material profit could result from the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake alone, science must still be granted a large measure of freedom without direction.
We admit that the drawing of plans cannot be dispensed with, and that there must be a great body, comprising able men of science and some men of government and industry, working to improve the conditions of living, of trade, and of exports. But in any case, full esteem must not be confined to those painters who are employed only in coating
iron against rust, those musicians whose playing has no aim higher than reviving the exhausted workers of the factories, and those philosophers who cannot entertain the crowds over the wireless; there must be the same esteem also for the thinkers and the workers in science whose concern is not confined to the improvement, early or late, of the material side of things.
There have lately been shown in London the first blouses made of the nylon that had been stored in the government warehouses. Their colors are white, crimson, and blue, and these blouses of exquisite colors are trimmed either with plissé or with simple ruching.
European ladies love such blouses — and the skirts — for wear at small parties; and they will find in what those engaged in the British clothing industry produce everything they could ask for in the way of fashions.
The skirt models on show today are made of a fabric known as crêpe romain, or wool georgette, in red, blue, yellow, and black. As for evening wear, it will be noticed that the skirt is open in front down to the knee and trimmed at the back with a ruched piece of the same fabric,
tied with a belt at the waist; the short skirt, too, is trimmed with the same ornament.
Housewives will open their homes to all the men of politics who will be coming to London from every part of the world for the meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations; and these, in their turn, will see with their own eyes what housewives have done to provide for themselves and their children out of the small quantities of foodstuffs allotted to them.
It is expected that among the delegates — who number about two thousand — and the specialists in law and economics there will be a number of men from the Middle East whose countries enjoy membership in the United Nations.
Many of them wish to learn how the British housewife runs the affairs of her house despite the harshness of living; and this will be possible for them only by living with these families. They will therefore forgo life in the most luxurious hotels of London in order to live among British families.
The conference section of the British Foreign Office has prepared a register of the names of those who will play host to the delegates.
The General Assembly of the United Nations will meet, as is known, in the month of January.