COMMENTS OF MR. PINCHOT ON THE REPORT OF THE 

 COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH. 

 Much of the foregoing report I subscribe to. I am constrained to 

 dissent from it in certain particulars, of which the following are the 

 more essential : 



1. It does not sufficiently recognize the necessity for the union 

 of agricultural research with the application of its results. 



The whole trend of modern science is toward the co-ordination of 

 the search for knowledge with the application of knowledge. In any 

 scientific organization the intimate association of the two is vital to 

 both. Research divorced from application loses direction and effective- 

 ness. Application divorced from research, as in the case of executive 

 bureaus without investigation, loses its flexibility and spirit, tends to 

 become formal and lifeless, and sinks almost inevitably into the laby- 

 rinth of red tape. Even if it were best for research itself to be separ- 

 ated from the application of its results, which I do not believe, the 

 general good would still demand that the executive bureaus. State and 

 National, which come into direct contact with the people, should be 

 vitalized and kept effective by the indispensable stimulus of research. 

 In such a matter at this we have no right to consider alone the separate 

 advantage of a single branch of the public s'ervice, but, on the contrary, 

 we are bound to base our conclusions on the general advantage of the 

 whole Government machinery, and still more on the welfare of the 

 people, for whose benefit it exists and for no other purpose whatever. 

 The test of agricultural research is neither the prosperity of institutions 

 nor the sacredness of the investigator, but the welfare of the man on 

 the land. Research and its application must work together to reach 

 the man on the land. 



2 . It does not sufficiently recognize the full responsibility of public 

 research agencies to the people, by whom they are supported. 



It is the business of Government science, in State and Nation, to 

 produce results for the people. All institutions of research supported 

 by taxation are responsible to the people through their representatives. 

 They exist by public authority, and they are, and must continue to be, 

 maintained by public funds. Research on public account must look 

 to legislative aid, and we may frankly admit that fact. Every investi- 

 gator should be unhampered, unbiased, and freed from harmful inter- 

 ruption in his search for truth, and in the formulation of his results, 



