Fiorello La Guardia

Fiorello Henry La Guardia (December 11, 1882 – September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as the 99th mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1946.

Quotes

The gentleman [Mr. Taber] from New York says [agricultural research] is all foolish. Yes; it was foolish when Burbank was experimenting with wild cactus. It was foolish when the Wright boys went down to Kitty Hawk and had a contraption there that they were going to fly like birds. It was foolish when Robert Fulton tried to put a boiler into a sail boat and steam it up the Hudson. It was foolish when one of my ancestors thought the world was round and discovered this country so that the gentleman from New York could become a Congressman. ... Do not seek to stop progress; do not seek to put the hand of politics on these scientific men who are doing a great work. As the gentleman from Texas points out, it is not the discharge of these particular employees that is at stake, it is all the work of investigation, of research, of experimentation that has been going on for years that will be stopped and lost.
- Remarks as a member of the 72nd U.S. Congress (28 December 1932) in opposition to an attempt to eliminate a small amount from the Agricultural Appropriation Bill. Reported in "Mayor-Elect La Guardia on Research", Science, new series, vol. 78, no. 2031 (1933) p. 511