SCIENTIFIC WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT 41 



it will be increased year by year until the scientific budget 

 will take its place in magnitude besides appropriations for 

 the navy, army, and other departments, and ultimately be- 

 come the chief item of expense which the government 

 has. 



There is one thing significant, however, about the scien- 

 tific work of the United States government. It is nearly 

 all of a practical, useful character. If you can show the 

 average American that a scientific enterprise of any kind has 

 some useful, practical bearing, he is with it heart and soul. 

 But he cares very little for pure science — that is, science pur- 

 sued for its own sake, without the slightest regard to use 

 or profit. And yet it is this pure, unpractical, and abso- 

 lute science that makes practical science possible. When 

 members of congress come to understand this remarkable 

 fact, and come to understand also the fact that the man 

 of science cares very little for the profits that may be in 

 his discoveries, congress will suppress all its watchdogs 

 of the treasury — well named as they are. For your watch- 

 dog, especially if it be of the bull variety, is quite as apt to 

 bite the man who is bringing gifts to its owner as it is apt 

 to guard its owner's premises from thieves. 



We have made a good start, however, with our $15,000,- 

 000, and the watchdogs who barked loudly at every new 

 proposal for increasing the government's scientific expendi- 

 tures are now happily either dead, or old and toothless. 



And here, we may remark, that the soul of all the scien- 

 tific work of the government is an institution which has pure 

 science for its object — an institution which, sad to relate, 

 was not founded by the government — although the govern- 

 ment has charge of it — but by the benefaction of a private 

 individual; I mean the Smithsonian institution. The 

 Smithsonian institution should be taken over by the gov- 

 ernment and given an enormous income for the pursuit of 

 pure science — an income large enough to attract the Kochs, 

 the Pasteurs, the Ehrlichs, the Kelvins and the other great 

 men of Europe to these shores. In which case Washington 

 could be made the world's center of pure science as it is now 

 the world's center of applied science. 



