Abstract
ELSEWHERE in this issue (p. 667) we print an account of the impressive functions by which the tercentenary of the foundation of Harvard University at Cambridge, Massachusetts, was celebrated as an outstanding event in the history of knowledge by a great gathering representative of all branches of learning and drawn from all parts of the world. A tribute of a different character came from six of the industrial leaders of the United States, in the form of a letter to President Conant directing attention to the indebtedness of American industry to the universities. They pointed to the large and increasing number of university trained men in industry and business as evidence of the influence of university education on industrial progress, and stated that, having caught the spirit of research from the universities, industry has applied its methods successfully and with noteworthy results. During the past twenty-five years, the number of industrial research laboratories in the United States has grown from a handful to more than 1500, and is rapidly increasing. “From the universities also flows much of the basic knowledge of science on which modern technical industry has built and will build in the future.” The letter is signed by Walter S. Gifford, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company; Alfred P. Sloan, jun., president of the General Motors Corporation; Thomas G. Watson, president of the International Business Machines Corporation; Pierre S. du Pont, chairman of the board of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company; Owen D. Young, chairman of the board of the General Electric Company; and Walter C. Teagle, president of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. It is a striking tribute to the significance of university institutions in industrial progress.
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The Harvard Tercentenary Celebrations. Nature 138, 679–680 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138679d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138679d0