In this corner, I like to record pleas for mathematics which
I consider particularly compelling or eloquent.

<H3> Remarks by Andrew Wiles </H3>

What follows appeared in the <em>Notices of the American Mathematical
Society</em>, Volume 44 (1997), no. 5, p. 588.  It
is an excerpt from comments made by Andrew Wiles
on March 5, 1997 at a briefing of the American Mathematical
Society to the United States Congress in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Wiles is best known for his 
solution of Fermat's Last Theorem.
<br>
<br>

"From the earliest times, mathematics has been pursued in two
ways.  It's been pursued because of its use, because that was how you
plotted the course of the stars so that you could navigate, that was how you
measured angles so that you could build, that was how you weighed and 
measured so that commmerce could be undertaken.  But at
the same time, at least as far as recorded history goes, there have been 
people who pursued mathematics for its own sake, for the sake of mathematics.  
And I confess I started out that way and I've stayed that way, from
the age of about ten, when I first came across the Fermat problem in a book 
in a public library.  I've been hooked on mathematical problems as intellectual 
challenges.  However, we don't have to worry that it won't be used.  
Mathematics---even the most pure-seeming mathematics, the most abstruse
mathematics that we thought would never be used---is now used every time you use 
your credit card, every time you use your computer.  It's used to preserve 
secrecy, to transmit data, and to recover
data that you thought you'd lost.
<br>
<br>

"Perhaps another thing to say about mathematics in this respect is that 
it's a bit like discovering oil.  The people who discovered oil were not 
the people who were actually designing the motor cars to use it.  
But mathematics has one great advantage over oil, in that no one has 
yet---and physicists will show you they never will---found a way that
you can keep on using the same oil forever.  However, mathematics is never lost, 
it is always used.  And it will always be used, the same mathematics; 
once it's discovered and understood, it will be used forever.  It's a 
tremendous resource in that respect, and it's
not one that we should neglect to develop."

<H3> Mathematics in Business </H3>
In Volume 44, No. 3 of the <em> Notices of the American Mathematical
Society</em> (September 1997, p. 932), the following comments of Conrad Hilton 
are reported.
<br>
<br>
"I'm not out to convince anyone that calculus, or even algebra and geometry, are necessities
in the hotel business.  But I will argue long and loud that they are not useless ornaments 
pinned onto an average man's education.  For me, at any rate, the ability to formulate quickly, 
to resolve any problem into its simplest, clearest form,
has been exceedingly useful.  It is true that you do not use algebraic formulae but 
in those three small brick buildings at Socorro I found higher mathematics the best 
possible exercise for developing the mental muscles necessary to this process.  
<br>
<P>
"In later years, I was to be faced with large financial problems, enormous business deals 
with as many ramifications as an octopus has arms, where bankers, lawyers, consultants, 
all threw in their particular bit of information.  It is always necessary to listen carefully 
to the powwow, but in the end someone has to put them all together, see the actual problem 
for what it is, and make a decision---come up with an answer.  A thorough training in the 
mental disciplines of mathematics precludes any tendency to be fuzzy, to be misled by red 
herrings, and I can only believe that my two years at the School of Mines helped me to see 
quickly what the actual problem was---and where the problem is, the answer is.  
Any time you have time times two and <em>know </em> it, you are bound to have four."  
</P>