Militarism and American Democracy

-22- To a far greater extent than its European counterparts the American university has always had a penchant, in Alfred North Whitehead's phrase, for “mating itself with action,” and this has contributed both to the welfare of the country and the vitality of the university. But, coupled with an unprecedented need for funds in the years since World War II, the penchant for action has also turned out to be a serious weakness of our universities. Tempted by lucrative government contracts, many universities — especially the big and famous ones — have become neglectful of their paramount responsibilities and have gone dangerously far toward becoming servants of the state. Because the major source by far of government contract funds is the military establishment, the universities have been drawn primarily into military, or militarily useful, research in the physical and social sciences, becoming in the proces