ANTAGONISM BETWEEN RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY

The new Bureau is to conduct certain fundamental researches on the chemical composition of foods, and on the changes that take place in foods as the result of the action of micro-organisms. In regard to this transfer the following statement was made:

"That it is work that has heretofore been done under the food and drugs act appropriation. It is research of a rather fundamental type; although necessary for food and drugs act enforcement, it seems more logical to place that work in the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils."

This is rather an effort to suppress investigations among that class of chemists who are best suited to carry them on in so far as food administration is concerned. In many other places in the hearings and in the original statement of the Secretary of Agriculture this restriction of research is stressed.

Not only was the demise of the Bureau of Chemistry thus caused, but the chemical work is now transferred to another unit under the regulatory system where denial of research is plainly indicated.

The Secretary of Agriculture himself has just discovered the antagonism between research and practical chemistry. In the hearings he made the following statement, after acknowledging that research and practical chemistry had gone hand in hand up to the present time, and especially in the institution with which he was connected:

"Research work and regulatory work do not mix any more than water and oil. We just grew up that way and we have developed to a point now where we think the regulatory work ought to be in another department by itself, rather than being in with research. At the present time we have an opportunity to work out this consolidation.