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"Yes, of course, they know that they need physicists, chemists and
medical
scientists, but what about historians?" He replied by shrugging his
shoulders hopelessly. I was also told by two or three people who
unquestionably know something about it at first hand that the Kaiser
Wilhelm Gesselschaft is probably safer from interference now than it
was a year ago, and that there is a prospect that it will have some
small radiating influence. In this connection it will be interesting to
set down what seems to me a remarkable and significant coincidence.
Some weeks earlier I had been talking in Paris with an old friend who
is one of the most intelligent Frenchmen I know, a professor at the
College de France. He said to me, "In the present state of the country
with all the financial and political trouble, the College de France
which, in accordance with its foundation, is relatively free from
government interference will play a more important part in the
intellectual life of the country than it has for many years. In short,
it will perhaps again fulfill the purpose of its founder." It was only
about three weeks later that a man who has had an extremely responsible
position in the intellectual life of Germany during the last 30 years
said to me, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Gesselschaft, being relatively
independent of the government, is destined to play a more important
part in the intellectual life of Germany than it has in the past, and
our greatest hopes center about it." The bearing of these two
practically identical statements on the importance of privately endowed
universities in America seems pretty evident.
 
 
 The influence of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesselschaft on the development
of the physical and medical sciences in the universities is likely to
be
considerable and in the right direction.