The Great Gray Plague

Institute forAdvanced Study at Princeton."

  "We are all familiar with the appearance of the great Dr. Einstein,"said Landrus. "But you are not showing us anything of his laboratory, asyou claimed."

  "Ah, but I am!" said Baker. "This is all the laboratory Dr. Einsteinever had. A desk, a chair, some writing paper. You will note that eventhe bookshelves behind him are bare except for a can of tobacco. Thegreatest laboratory in the world, a place for a man's mind to work inpeace. Nuclear science began here."

  Wily jumped to his feet. "This is absurd! No one denies the greatness ofDr. Einstein's work, but where would he have been without billions ofdollars spent at Oak Ridge, Hanford, Los Alamos, and other greatlaboratories. To say that Dr. Einstein did not use laboratory facilitiesdoes not imply that vast expenditures for laboratories are notnecessary!"

  "I should like to reverse your question, Dr. Wily, and then let itrest," said Baker. "What would Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos havedone without Dr. Einstein?"

  * * * * *

  Senator Landrus floated up from his chair and raised his hands. "Let usbe orderly, gentlemen. Dr. Baker has the floor. I should not like tohave him interrupted again, please."

  Baker nodded his thanks to the senator. "It has been charged," Bakercontinued, "that the methods of NBSD in granting funds for research havechanged in recent times. This is entirely correct, and I should firstlike to show the results of this change."

  He unrolled a chart and pinned it to the board behind him. "This chartshows what we have been paying and what we have been getting. The blackline on the upper half of the chart shows the number of millions ofdollars spent during the past five years. Our budget has had amoderately steady rise. The green line shows the value of laboratoriesconstructed and equipment purchased. The red line shows the measure ofnew concepts developed by the scientists in these laboratories, theimprovement on old concepts, and the invention of devices that arefundamentally new in purpose or function."

  The gallery leaned forward to stare at the chart. From press row camethe popping of flash cameras. Then a surge of spontaneous comment rolledthrough the chamber as the audience observed the sharp rise of the redline during the last six months, and the dropping of the green line.

  Wily was on his feet again. "An imbecile should be able to see that thetrend of the red line is the direct result of the previous satisfactoryexpenditures for facilities. One follows the other!"

  Landrus banged for order.

  "That's a very interesting point," said Baker. "I have another charthere"--he unrolled and pinned it--"that shows the output in terms ofconcepts and inventions, plotted against the size of the grants given tothe institution."

  The curve went almost straight downhill.

  Wily was screaming. "Such data are absolutely meaningless! Who can saywhat constitutes a new idea, a new invention? The months ofgroundwork--"

  "It will be necessary to remove any further demonstrators from thehearing room," said Landrus. "This will be an orderly hearing if I haveto evict everyone but Dr. Baker and myself. Please continue, doctor."

  "I am quite willing for my figures and premises to be examined in alldetail," said Baker. "I will be glad to supply the necessary informationto anyone who desires it at the close of this session. In the meantime,I should like to present a picture of the means which we have devised todetermine whether a grant should be made to any given applicant.

  "I am sure you will agree, Senator Landrus and Committee members, thatit would be criminal to make such choices on any but the most scientificbasis. For this reason, we have chosen to eliminate all elements ofbias, chance, or outright error. We have developed a highly advancedscientific tool which we know simply as The Index."

  * * * * *

  Baker posted another long chart on the wall, speaking as he went. "Thischart represents the index of an institution which shall remainanonymous as Sample A. However, I would direct Dr. Wily's closeattention to this exhibit. The black median line indicates the boundaryof characteristics which have been determined as acceptable ornonacceptable for grants. The colored areas on either side of the medianline show strength of the various factors represented in any oneinstitution. The Index is very simple. All that is required is thatfifty per cent of the area above the line be colored in order to beeligible for a grant. You will note that in the case of Sample A therequirement is not met."

  Fenwick couldn't believe his eyes. The chart was almost like the firstone he had ever seen, the one prepared for Clearwater College monthsago. He hadn't even known that Baker was still using the idiotic Index.Something was wrong, he told himself--all wrong.

  "The Index is a composite," Baker was saying; "the final resultant ofmany individual charts, and it is the individual charts that will showyou the factors which are measured. These factors are determined by ananalysis of information supplied directly by the institution.

  "The first of these factors is admissions. For a college, it isadmission as a student. For a corporation, it is admission as anemployee. In each case we present the qualifications of the following atcollege age: Thomas Edison, Michael Faraday, Nicholai Tesla, James Watt,Heinrich Hertz, Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, and Henry Ford. Theadmissibility of this group of the world's scientific and the inventiveleaders is shown here." Baker pointed to a minute dab of red on thechart.

  "Gentlemen of the Committee," he said, "would you advise me to supportwith a million-dollar grant an institution that would close its doors tominds like those of Edison and Faraday?"

  The roar of surf seemed to fill the committee room as Landrus banged invain on the table. Photographers' flashes lit the scene with spurts oflightning. Wily was on his feet screaming, and Baker thought he heardthe word, "Fraud!" repeated numerous times. Landrus was finally heard,"The room will be cleared at the next outburst!"

  Baker wondered if he ever did carry out such a threat.

  But Wily prevailed. "No such question was ever asked," he cried. "Myorganization was never asked the ridiculous question of whether or notit would admit these men. Of course we would admit them if they wereknown to us!"

  "I should like to answer the gentleman's objection," Baker said toLandrus.

  The senator nodded reluctantly.

  "We did not, of course, present these men by name. That would have beentoo obvious. We presented them in terms of their qualifications at theage of college entrance. You see how many would have been turned down.How many, therefore, who are the intellectual equals of these men arealso being turned down? Dr. Wily says they would be admitted if theywere known. But of course they could not be known at the start of theircareers!"

  * * * * *

  Baker turned the chart and quickly substituted another. "The secondstandard is that of creativeness. We simply asked the applicants todescribe ten or more new ideas of speculations entertained by eachmember of the staff during the past year. When we received thisinformation, we did not even read the descriptions; we merely plottedthe degree of response. As you see, the institution represented bySample A does not consider itself long on speculative ideas."

  A titter rippled through the audience. Baker saw Wily poised, beet-red,to spring up once more; then apparently he thought better of it andslumped in his seat.

  "Is this a fair test?" Baker asked rhetorically. "I submit that it is.An institution that is in the business of fostering creativeness oughtto be guilty of a few new ideas once in a while!"

  He changed charts once more and faced the listeners. "We have more thantwenty such factors that go into the composition of the Index. I willnot weary you with a recital of all of them, but I will present just onemore. We call this the area of communication, and it is plotted here forSample institution A."

  Again, a dismal red smudge showed up at the bottom of the sheet. Fenwickcould hardly keep from chuckling aloud as he recalled the first time hehad seen such a chart. He hoped Baker was putting it over. If thereaction of the gallery were an
y indication, he was doing so.

  "A major activity of scientists in all ages has been writing reports oftheir activities. If a man creates something new and talks only tohimself about it, the value of the man and his discovery to the world isa big round zero. If a man creates something new and tells the wholeworld about it, the value is at a maximum. Somewhere in between theseextremes lies the communicative activity of the modern scientist.

  "There was a time when the scientist was the most literate of men, andthe writing of a scientific report was a work of literary art. Thelectures of Michael Faraday, Darwin's account of his greatresearch--these are literate reading still.

  "There are few such men among us today. The modern