COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 295 
COMMITTEE ON THE SIGNAL SERVICE OF THE ARMY, THE 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY, 
AND THE HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE OF THE NAVY DEPART- 
MENT. 1884 
In the Sundry Civil Act approved July 7, 1884, Congress 
directed the appointment of a joint commission of the Senate 
and House to consider and report on the organization of the 
Signal Service of the Army, the Geological Survey, the Coast 
and Geodetic Survey, and the Hydrographic Office of the Navy 
Department “with the view to secure greater efficiency and 
economy of administration of the public service in said bureaus.” 
It would appear that the demand for this inquiry had a double 
origin. In Congress and in the country generally it was thought 
that the weather service, which was organized under the Signal 
Service of the Army, would be improved and extended if it 
were taken out from under the control of the War Department 
and placed in charge of civilians. A separate inquiry into this 
matter was at first proposed, but subsequently it was merged with 
an inquiry into the relationships of the several national surveys. 
Regarding the latter the Joint Commission remarked in its 
report: 
“Tt has been frequently stated in the course of debates in Congress that the 
several scientific Bureaus named were engaged in unnecessary work, so far as prac- 
tical results were concerned, and also that there was a duplication of work, two or 
more Bureaus being engaged in substantially the same character of investigation 
and in the execution of the same work. It was claimed, especially, that the 
Geological Survey and the Coast and Geodetic Survey were duplicating their 
work; and it was also claimed that the work of the Coast Survey proper could be 
more economically performed under the direction of the Navy Department by use 
of the force and the organization in that Department known as the Hydrographic 
Office, and that that work should be transferred from the Treasury to the 
Navy.” 286 
As originally organized, the Joint Commission consisted of 
Senators Wm. B. Allison (chairman), Eugene Hale, and Geo. 
H. Pendleton, and Representatives Robert Lowry, Hilary A. 
Herbert and Theodore Lyman (secretary). ‘The Commission 
™ House Reports, 49th Congress, rst Session, Rep. no. 2740, pp. 1-2. 
