"AN OUTSTANDING FOUNDATION UPON WHICH TO BUILD"
Alfred P. Sloan Jr., speaking at the dedication of the Albert Bradley Center for Mathematics, predicts a bright future for this modern science at Dartmouth
As Dartmouth's new Albert Bradley Center for Mathematics was formally opened on November 3 and 4, the predictions and discussions of scholars dealing with "New Directions in Mathematics" were suspended during part of the first evening for a dedication ceremony at which President Dickey, Albert Bradley '15, Alfred P. Sloan Jr., LL.D. '57, and Prof. John G. Kemeny, chairman of the Mathematics Department, were speakers.
Mr. Sloan, speaking for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which together with Mr. Bradley provided funds to build the Center, brought blushing pleasure to Dartmouth's mathematics staff by quoting an outside report which characterized the department as "the most energetic, imaginative, and effective one in any Ameriturned can liberal arts college today." He spoke of the basic significance of the mathematical sciences today, and paid warm tribute to Mr. Bradley, his friend and business associate of many years.
Following, except for a few introductory salutations, are Mr. Sloan's remarks at the dedication:
It is really a happy occasion for me to be here this evening and join with you in dedicating what we all hope will be a step forward in expanding our knowledge of the mathematical sciences. I say this is a happy occasion for me for the reason that anything and everything in the area of research, particularly basic research, is very close to my heart and interest.
I suppose many here wonder why Mr. Bradley and I, who, as you know, have devoted our lives to the battles of competitive enterprise, should have the courage, or perhaps I should say the gall, to inject ourselves into the intricacies of the great educational complex. Perhaps I can clarify that by a little story told me some years ago by that great educator and scientist, the late Dr. Karl T. Compton, then President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The story evolved out of a discussion we were having about the philosophy of retirement.
It deals with one of those high-powered industrial executives that we read about. I do not know whether anyone ever saw one. I do not know whether the hypothesis is valid or not, but we will accept it as such for the moment. This individual we shall call Bill. Bill had served long, faithfully, and on a high level of competence. But along comes time and, having little respect for such qualities, taps Bill on the shoulder. Bill is retired. A short time after that a few of his former associates got together to call on Bill to cheer him up and presumably to have a drink with him and to see what Bill might be up to. After the party got going someone asked Bill what he did now that he did not have to work like the rest of them. Bill said, "Well, I will tell you. I do not get up as early in the morning as I used to, but when I do I make a dash for the newspaper and look up the obituary column, and if my name is not there I relax and make the best of it."
I am sure none of us would deny Bill's right to relax. But I hold his objective should be to make the most of it, not the best of it. He should recognize that he owed a debt to the society that had given him such great opportunities. He should be willing to turn back his time, his talents, and his resources in reasonable measure into the stream of economic and social progress. There, ladies and gentlemen, is the license permitting Mr. Bradley and myself to appear before you this evening.
In the atmosphere of this great educational institution it is academic to say that knowledge is the means of promoting progress along the whole front of human endeavor. It is, nevertheless, a fact. Social values, economic values, human values involving human behavior, health values, security values, spiritual values — all have their grass roots in knowledge and can thrive only in an atmosphere of expanded knowledge. And is it not true that education is the catalyst, or creative instrumentality, upon which the expansion of knowledge depends?
Therefore, as a sort of proxy for this man Bill, Albert and I appear this evening as advocates for the advancement of higher education in all its ramifications, especially in the promotion of research, particularly basic research — in a way education's affiliate. And all this not merely in the abstract but because of its impact in advancing the causes of economic and social progress, as well as national security.
I am a graduate of M.I.T. and as such I should know more about the mathe- matical sciences than I do. But, when the timing of one's academic life as an undergraduate or perhaps as a post-graduate is in the area of ancient history, the rapid accumulation of knowledge over the years leaves such an individual at the post, so to speak. Now, that is simply an excuse for a high level of inaccuracy in any remarks I may make about the mathematical sciences.
In the first place, I do not think the high significance of the mathematical sciences is at all recognized and appreciated. After all, is it not true that mathematics, using that term in a broad sense, is involved in a very basic way in all scientific concepts? Can it not be said that mathematics is the foundation of all scientific reactions? Is it not true that we might popularly define mathematical science by calling it the arithmetic which underlies the miraculous operations of nature's reactions? Perhaps, however, I should not offer such an idea before such a sophisticated audience.
Under the tutelage of an associate in our Foundation, Dr. Warren Weaver, I have been amazed at the truly dramatic contribution to our defense in the last war made in a very basic form by mathematical science. I have been impressed likewise by the generous support of various agencies of our Government not entirely in the area of defense, for the expansion of research in this area of science. Thus we recognize the significance of the occasion tonight. We are taking a step forward in providing expanded facilities and for increased talent to further exploitation of this very basic discipline.
I said it is a privilege to be here this evening. It is particularly so because of my long association with Albert Bradley, whom you are honoring in giving his name to your mathematical activities. Albert and I have been associated together for at least 25 years and I cannot remember any difference of opinion we ever had. General Motors, where Albert and I have spent our lives, is recognized by those qualified to judge as an efficient enterprise. As a matter of fact it is a living testimony to the fallacious thinking of our politicians that efficiency is incompatible with size. Politicians consider bigness a crime, except of course as to Government - that is quite different.
I have spoken many times and I am glad to speak again this evening of the significant contribution made by Albert Bradley and his financial associates in his application of the mathematical sciences to industry's efficiency.
Is it not true that all structures have a foundation? And is it not also true that the stronger and more comprehensive the foundation the more we can properly add to the superstructure? Perhaps I now come to the most important comment of all. You have here at Dartmouth a most outstanding group, not only as to itself, judged by its own spectacular performance, but a foundation of extraordinary capacity on which we now prepare to build.
In our Foundation's examination of this project, a mathematical scientist of the highest standing, whose opinion everybody respects, wrote us as follows: "I regard the Dartmouth Mathematics Department as the most energetic, imaginative, and effective one in any American liberal arts college today. They are developing an improved curriculum, writing exciting new textbooks, and carrying on research in forward-looking directions."
Our own staff, in making their report to our Trustees, expressed the following opinion: "This is a very high-grade project which would immeasurably strengthen the most fundamental of all sciences at a liberal arts college which is strengthening its whole science curriculum. Math at Dartmouth is stronger, I believe, than at any other college in our country of similar size and character; and is being developed in a very stimulating relationship to medicine, the social sciences, and engineering as well as the natural sciences."
It seems clear, therefore, Dr. Dickey, that we have here a sound and basic objective, a real opportunity to make a significant contribution in stimulating a highly fundamental cause. You have provided an outstanding foundation upon which to build. We have a distinguished name to signal our efforts. To forecast is dangerous but I am quite convinced that sooner or later you will be talking about a further expansion of your mathematical science program and, I assure you, at that time our Foundation will be glad to listen, supported by our faith in what you have done and will now do, and in recognition of the further basic fact that everything that lives must grow.
Mr. Sloan, delivering his address, and Mr. Bradley, seated at the right.
Shown at the main entrance of the newmathematics center are Mr. and Mrs.Albert Bradley '15, their daughter Jeanneand her husband, Evan S. Ingels.
John Brown Cook '29 and PresidentDickey at the separate dedication ofthe Wallace Cook Memorial Librarywithin the Bradley Center. Located onthe second floor, the library is one ofthe finest facilities in the modern mathcenter, and offers space for a specialized collection of 8,000 volumes plusthe leading periodicals in the field.
