COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 299 
An Astrophysical Observatory has been organized under the 
Smithsonian Institution corresponding to the observatory pro- 
posed by the committee of the Academy. To this extent, the 
views of the committee have found favor with Congress. 
Whether the larger plans will eventually be adopted time alone 
will reveal. 
The report of the committee of the Academy was printed in 
the introduction to the volume of testimony given before the 
Joint Commission. Many high officials were called upon by 
the Commission to express their views or to make statistical or 
other statements relative to the matter under investigation, in- 
cluding the Lieutenant-General of the Army, the Secretaries of 
War and of the Navy, the heads of the several scientific bureaus 
concerned and many subordinate officers. The discussion took 
a wide range but returned repeatedly to the recommendations of 
the committee of the Academy which formed the text for many 
remarks. 
The report of the Joint Commission in reality comprises 
three separate reports. Allison, Hale and Lowry agreed as to 
the various questions at issue, and Wait also sided with them, 
except in so far as the Signal Service was concerned. Morgan, 
Herbert and Wait submitted a separate series of recommenda- 
tions regarding the latter, while Herbert and Morgan presented 
a minority report relative to the Coast and Geodetic Survey and 
the Geological Survey. 
The conclusion of the majority of the Commission regarding 
the Coast and Geodetic Survey was as follows: 
“ 
. . . . A majority of the commission concur with the view expressed by the 
Academy of Sciences, that when the original survey shall have been completed it 
will be time enough to raise the question whether or not the hydrographic work 
involved in these resurveys may not then be transferred to the Navy Department; 
but until that time the undersigned believe that question should not be seriously 
considered. .... Me 
“There is nothing in the testimony to indicate that the work now performed by 
the Survey can be more efficiently performed if transfer is made, nor is it shown 
*“ House Report no. 2740, 49th Congress, rst Session, p. 6. 
