REPORT OF ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON ENGINEERING 



To the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institution. 



Gentlemen : In response to the suggestion that the Advisory 

 Committee submit such suggestions as are deemed helpful in deter- 

 mining the policy, methods, and acts of the Carnegie Institution, 

 your Advisory Committee on Engineering herewith respectfully 

 offers the following : 



Preliminary. — The Founder has stated his intent, in the organ- 

 ization of this Institution, in simple and very definite terms, thus 

 indicating clearly his primary purpose to be the promotion of the 

 highest welfare of the people of the country, through scientific re- 

 search, and incidentally to aid individuals who have been successful 

 in that vocation, seeking mainly to help those who have most effect- 

 ively helped themselves in the prosecution of that work. 



The chief purpose of the Founder being, if possible, to secure to 

 the United States of America leadership in the domain of discovery 

 and " the utilization of new forces for the benefit of man," as stated 

 in the deed of gift, it follows that such work in research as pro- 

 motes the industrial arts and improves the system of production of 

 the country is most important, in the views of the Founder. Scien- 

 tific methods and scientific work in the field of engineering, that 

 profession which devotes itself to the advancement of these arts, is 

 directly in the line of the Founder's ideal. 



The general scheme of the Carnegie Institution seems to contem- 

 plate something in the nature of a university, but devoted to research 

 instead of education. A university as we commonly -understand it is 

 the head of an educational system combining the work of a museum 

 with that of a school. The Founder of the Carnegie Institution 

 seems to have recognized that there is another function not included 

 in either of these. He has designed this Institution to be an investi- 

 gator ; in determining its functions and duties this should be remem- 

 bered. The Institution proposes to supplement the work already 

 done by the universities, but to supplement it on lines of its own. 

 In any work undertaken by the Carnegie Institution its own identity 

 should be maintained. Cooperation with others should only be 

 directed to the prevention of duplication of work. The Institution 

 should never subordinate itself to any other institution. 



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