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THE GUIDE T< > NAT! 'RFC 



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The Application of Knowledge. 



Twelve million dollars could not 

 have been invested to put into prac- 

 tice a grander idea than that expressed 

 in the articles of incorporation of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington — 

 "That the objects of the corporation 

 shall be to encourage in the broadest 

 and most liberal manner, investigation, 

 research, and discovery, and the appli- 

 cation of knowledge to the improve- 

 ment of mankind." 



But the value depends upon the way 

 in which this expression is construed. 

 Does the final clause, "the application 

 of knowledge," follow as the climax of 

 all that has gone before — the end de- 

 voutly to be desired; or is it to be 

 regarded as the least important part 

 of the statement? The last-mentioned 

 construction of the relative importance 

 of the things to be "encouraged" ap- 

 pears to be the one adopted, or pos- 

 sibly is the one that has always been 

 maintained. This seems to be the case, 

 since the Enstitution has summarily, 

 and apparently, if not intentionally, 

 insulted Luther Burbank by discontin- 

 uing the allowance formerly given to 

 him. President Woodward is stren- 

 uous in declaring that that allowance 

 never was pledged for ten years, nor 

 for any other special time, as Mr. Bur- 

 bank so understood it, being justified 

 in thus believing, because one of the 

 Trustees told him so. A Trustee is 

 supposed to be well informed, and to 

 speak with authority. 



But let us admit for the sake of argu- 

 ment that it never did have a definite 

 limit, and the writer thinks that such 

 a belief is well founded, because Presi- 

 dent Woodward, in a letter of July the 

 twenty-ninth, writes, "I trust you will 

 not have the audacity to state in print 

 that the Institution pledged an allow- 

 ance of $10,000 per year for any stated 

 period." Note the expression regard- 

 ing our "audacity." We inquired re- 

 spectfully whether it is true or not, 

 that such an allowance had been 

 pledged for that length of time. One 

 would naturally infer from the Presi- 

 dent's somewhat equivocal dictum that 

 no positive assertion of the kind had 

 been made. Then is the injustice to 

 Mr. Purbank all the greater. Think of a 

 man. as busy as is Mr. Burbank, adapt- 

 ing his work so as to utilize ten thou- 

 sand dollars a year, with the possibility 

 that the money might be withdrawn at 

 any moment. T invite a man to dinner, 

 and tell him that the feast will t^m] with 

 the soup. Or I tell him that T will ferry 

 him over the river, and toss him out 

 when we reach deep water. Great 

 "encouragement" that ! 



The more one analyzes the situation, 

 the more it seems as if there was no 

 "encouragement," but a shrewd seek- 

 ing after all that could be got from a 

 few years in the best part of Air. Bur- 

 bank's life. 



But it is maintained that Mr. bur- 

 bank's enemies are many, and that 

 they have been telling displeasing 



