Testimony was resumed on Tuesday morning. Dykstra was the first to be called. He arose with a clearing of his throat and moved portentously to the front of the room with the faint side-wise waddle that marked his movements.
He said: “From that great moment, now lost in the dim shades of history, when the first cave man struck fire from flint to warm and illumine his cavern, there has been a code which the true scientist unwaveringly observes. Unspoken and unwritten, it is nevertheless engraved upon his heart in letters that burn. That code is that knowledge shall be free. It shall be the rightful possession of all mankind. The true scientist would no more think of taking out a patent upon his work than he would think of deliberately falsifying the reports of his observations. Nowhere, in the presence of scientific men, have I heard anything quite so insulting as the reference made yesterday to the revered name of Dr. Einstein. As if he would actually be concerned with the trivialities of royalties from the manufacture of photoelectric ceils! Royalties are for tinkerers and garage mechanics. Scientists have nothing to do with such!”
Cogswell coughed behind his hand. “It would seem, Dr. Dykstra, that scientists must also eat.”
“The laborer is worthy of his hire,” said Dykstra, “No genuine scientist ever starved or was in want. He must live sparingly, of course, but a Spartan regimen is all the more conducive to the work of the mind at highest efficiency.
“No, indeed, senator, the true scientist is not in need of royalties. A man who is worth his salt will automatically gain the reputation that will take him where he deserves to go — to the laboratories and to the endowments which are his rightfully, in return for the benefit he bestows so freely upon all mankind. Bestows without thought of the vulgar commercialism which we see here being attempted to be thrust upon us.”
In the afternoon, Jennings was called. His spare, sticklike frame settled awkwardly into the witness chair. An amused tolerance was upon his face.
“I would prefer to answer your questions,” he said. “There is no general statement I have to make beyond what has already been said.”
Cogswell said, “What can you tell us, Dr. Jennings, of the allegedly revolutionary principles behind these toys of Dr. Nagle?”
“I can tell you nothing, because I do not know what these principles are,” said Jennings.
“You do not know for certain that Dr. Nagle has actually made the discoveries claimed for him and by him?”