Robert Pinot (28 January 1862 – 24 February 1926) was a French sociologist from the conservative Le Playist school who became a highly effective lobbyist for heavy industry owners. He was the long-term secretary-general of the Comité des forges, an association of iron and steel manufacturers that was influential in setting industrial policy, particularly during World War I (1914–18). Early years Robert Pinot was born on 28 January 1862 in Boissy-Saint-Léger. He was admitted to the École des Mines in Paris in 1883, but left to join the Ministry of Finance. In 1885, three years after the death of Frédéric le Play, Henri de Tourville and Edmond Demolins founded a new journal, Science sociale. They brought with them a few adherents including Paul de Rousiers and Robert Pinot. Pinot studied at the École des Sciences politiques, and taught at this school from 1893 to 1899. Pinot agreed with Le Play's corporatist-paternalist views, and believed in the progressive character of industry associations. He thought that both étatisme and socialism were regressive. Pinot was a key contributor to La Science sociale, published by the Le Playist Societe d'Economie Sociale. Pinot was appointed the first administrative director of the Musée social in 1894, with the mandate of overseeing its "sound and rapid organization." While at the Musée social, Pinot joined the Grand Cercle Républicain, organized by the Revue politique et parlementaire with the hope that it would supply leaders of a new conservative party. The Grand Cercle held meetings and banquets attended by leading moderate republicans who started to call themselves progressiste. The socialist journals called them conservative and reactionary. The group was strongly opposed to socialism and in favour of suppressing working class agitation. Pinot resigned from the Musée social in 1897 due to a disagreement with Aldebert de Chambrun and the Musee board. He felt that the institution had not maintained its goals of being purely scientific and outside politics. Perhaps more to the point, he also resented his lack of autonomy. In 1899 Pinot was chosen as director of the syndicate of locomotive manufacturers, who thought he had the skills to negotiate for them with the politicians and bureaucrats. The manufacturers were struggling with erratic demand for their products, competition from abroad and the effects of recent labor laws on their costs. Pinot thought the syndicate was a counterweight to "an overloaded state, feeble or tyrannical, and a working class