secure the title to the land on Boylston Street on which the Institute buildings now stand; for, with this land in our possession in fee simple, the pressure for space could be relieved, either by building over the whole tract, or, if it seemed wiser, by a sale of this land and removal to another site. In accordance, therefore, with your instructions, the Executive Committee presented this matter to the General Court in January by a petition praying for a title in fee simple. The successful outcome of that effort is known to you. The General Court has conferred upon the Institute its title to the land in question. In the opposition which was called out in connection with this action there was made, from time to time, an intimation that the action of the authorities of the Institute in this matter was taken in disregard of the rights of others. While this effort to make out of the question a moral issue seems to me wholly unwarranted, it deserves to be put on record that the Executive Committee, in inaugurating this action, tried to approach the question in a fair and just spirit. The original Act under which the use of this land was conferred upon the Institute would seem plainly to indicate that the Commonwealth reserved to itself the right to use the space now left open for the benefit of the educational institutions established in that Act. Believing this to be the case, the Executive Committee has taken only the action which it felt compelled to take in justice to the interests of the Institute, and with the entire conviction that any rights of the abutters which were contravened under this action were such as rested upon purely legal considerations, and not moral ones. I have to report to you that the legal questions involved seem in a fair way for settlement in the near future. I have been given to understand that a suit will be brought immediately by the abutters, to test the correctness of their interpretation of the law. A prompt and final decision of this matter is hoped for, and will be welcomed alike by the authorities of the Institute and by the owners of abutting property. It is evident that, until this question has been decided, the problem of greater facilities or of a possible new site must wait, since no practical action could be taken by this body looking to the furtherance of either of these solutions of the problem of our crowded condition until the legal questions thus raised have been quieted. THE NEW BUILDINGS. The Institute built, during the summer of 1902, the large one-story building known as the Lowell Building, which houses the Department of Electrical Engineering. During the summer of 1903 we have built still another building of two and one-half stories, which houses the Department of Naval Architecture, a research laboratory of physical chemistry, and the division of mineralogy, an important part of geology and mining engineering, for all of which the building is most admirably adapted. While these buildings are in a sense temporary, they are adapted to use for a number of years to come, and have enormously relieved the pressure for space, as well as added facilities for instruction. In fact, with the beginning of this year the student body is better housed than it has ever been in the history of the Institute. RESEARCH WORK IN THE INSTITUTE. The most far-reaching and important changes which have marked the past year are the distinctive efforts now being made toward the prosecution of scientific research. The first is the organization of a School for Engineering Research, whose plan and scope have been fully presented in a special pamphlet printed for that purpose. The plan contemplates provision for research in applied science and in engineering directions, for a very small number of well-equipped men who are capable of executing pieces of research of real value and importance, and who shall have such freedom of work that they may throw themselves with devotion into what they undertake. This is the first effort in any technical school in this country to offer research work distinctive from that of the college, and directed toward engineering subjects. While this school will offer an opportunity for earning the degree of Doctor of Engineering, it is intended that the conferring of the degree shall be a minor feature of the work, and that the few men who are admitted to this work shall be men who are aiming at research and not degrees. For the present year the only candidate who has been admitted is Professor Harold B. Smith, head of the Department of Electrical Engineering in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. A second and extremely promising effort at research is the Research Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, established under the direction of Professor Noyes, and in large part made possible by the generosity of himself and of his colleague, Professor Willis R. Whitney. It may not be generally known that in and about Boston are grouped a number of well-known men in physical chemistry; and the inauguration of this department, made possible originally by the gifts of its own professors, has been still further helped by grants from the Carnegie Institution and from the William E. Hale Fund. The third research effort is that now going on in the work of the Sanitary Research Station, established last summer at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Albany street, which was made possible by the gift of a friend who prefers to remain anonymous. The work going on there deals not only with the problems of research, but also with the diffusion of knowledge by means of attractive pamphlets furnishing elementary sanitary instruction. These three efforts mark a distinct step, not so much in the aim as in the progress of the Institute, and in the progress at the same time of technical education in this country. In taking a step under which the Institute plainly marks out its intention to offer facilities for research, as well as for undergraduate work, a definite effort is made to retain a position of leadership in technical education. THE PLACE OF RESEARCH IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. In American institutions of learning one hears, of late years, much talk concerning research and the need for its existence; and in response to this general sentiment there has developed a series of graduate schools in all our principal universities. It is not over-stating the matter to say that in most respects these graduate schools, which now contain between six and seven thousand students, do not indicate any such increase in research work and in the growth of the research spirit as their numbers might imply. I am not sure that there has resulted even any definite idea as to what research is; and I am inclined to believe that the fundamental question itself, what constitutes research and what is the spirit which must exist in an individual and in an institution in order that research may flourish, is one to which American institutions need to devote themselves. Without going into a discussion of what research is, it is worth while to point out some of the difficulties which lie in the way of the development of research in our institutions, and which make it even yet a question of doubt whether our universities will ever become as efficient centers of research as those of some other countries. The fundamental distinction which one finds in comparing our institutions with those of Europe is to be found in the difference between our elementary instruction and that given in our higher schools, universities, and technical schools. The education of the European boy in the school which leads up to the university or to the technical school is simpler and more thorough, so that, when he comes into the technical school or the university, he is a better grounded man in the fundamentals of education, and he enters into an institution where, in virtue of this fact, the entire method and spirit are changed. He no longer finds himself face to face with required daily recitations; he is practically freed from the burden of examinations, and he enters into a relation with his teachers which only men can have with each other. No one who has not been a teacher can realize how enormous is the burden thus lifted from the shoulders of the Faculty and student alike. In the Institute of Technology practically one-eighth of the whole school year is given up to formal examinations. Under our system of instruction the Faculty is trying to carry through the courses a considerable proportion of men who are either incompetent or who do not care for the work. American institutions are almost the only ones in any country which undertake to force into the mind of an adult man a course of instruction which he does not care to have. The great activity in research in European institutions is due, first of all, to the spirit now alive there, which makes research a test of a man's success and of his efficiency; but it is due, to no small degree, to the fact that European teachers are relieved of this enormous burden which American teachers have upon their shoulders. Looking at the German institutions, one feels that as research institutions they have great advantages over ours in these three respects. First, because research itself is a part of the ideal of the professor's life, and the spirit of research a part, and the most vital part, of the educational spirit. Secondly, their freedom from the burden of instruction which our teachers bear, and the opportunity thus afforded to give free play to the research effort. Finally, the fixity of place and the guarantee of a retiring salary, which removes the ever-present problem of support in old age. How important is the development of the research spirit as a part of national progress we are only just beginning to realize. We may confidently say that it will count more and. more in the future in this national progress, and the problem of developing it wisely and of turning it to the solution, not alone of theoretical questions, but of practical questions of national life, is becoming each decade a more real question for civilized nations. In America we have still the intellectual habits of a pioneer people. The American is energetic, resourceful, and superficial. He can make a little knowledge go farther than the citizen of any other country. Resourceful- |