THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



557 



tation of the unfairness of the present 

 state of things should be made by those 

 unconnected with the Government ser- 

 vice. Every business man knows — 

 and Congress is largely composed of 

 able business men — that it is unwise to 

 pay inadequate salaries to those who 

 fill responsible offices. Thus the pres- 

 ent agricultural appropriation bill, as 

 approved by the House, allots $187,520 

 to the Division of Forestry, of which 

 $2,500 is for the salary of the chief. 

 Now the efficiency with which this large 

 sum is expended depends on the chief, 

 and it is clearly economical to secure 

 the services of the best man in Amer- 

 ica. Such men are found, attracted by 

 the great opportunities for advancing 

 science offered by the Government ser- 

 vice, but they are often called away to 

 other work of equal importance with 

 larger salary. Thus an officer of the 

 Department of Agriculture receiving 

 $1,800 has this year accepted a position 

 under the Japanese Government with a 

 salary of $7,000. Men from the Gov- 

 ernment bureaus will be found in all 

 our universities, while it is but seldom 

 that a man will go from a university po- 

 sition to Washington. The present ag- 

 ricultural appropriation bill contained 

 a modest increase of salary for some of 

 the scientific officers, but the provisions 

 were regarded as out of order on the 

 ground that they were new legislation. 

 It is to be hoped that a bill will be in- 

 troduced at once containing these pro- 

 visions for the reorganization of the 

 Department of Agriculture. 



The needs of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum should be urged by men 

 of science throughout the country, be- 

 cause its organization is such that it 

 has no really responsible head, whose 

 duty it is to present its claims to Con- 

 gress. The museum has developed un- 

 der the Smithsonian Institution, but, as 

 Joseph Henry pointed out, the functions 

 of the two institutions are entirely dif- 

 ferent. It may possibly be best for the 

 museum to remain under the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, owing to administra- 



tive reasons; but it should at least have 

 the autonomy possessed by the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology with an inde- 

 pendent director. The sheds in which 

 the great, though somewhat unsymmet- 

 rical, collections are housed at Washing- 

 ton are a reproach both to science and 

 to the Government. New York City 

 has spent millions of dollars on the 

 building for its museum, while the Na- 

 tional Government has done practically 

 nothing. Every member of Congress 

 takes pride in the National Library, 

 and no one regrets the millions of dol- 

 lars that it cost. It is but right to give 

 material expression in the best form 

 possible to the intellectual life of the 

 nation. But why should not the mu- 

 seum have a building equally represen- 

 tative, and funds for the increase of its 

 collections by well-organized scientific 

 expeditions? It will doubtless have 

 them if we wait long enough, but there 

 are more efficient ways to obtain things 

 than by waiting. 



Senator Morgan has introduced a 

 bill establishing a National Observatory 

 of the United States on almost exactly 

 the lines recommended in the last issue 

 of this journal. There is now a real op- 

 portunity to secure a reform, advocated 

 for years by our leading astronomers, 

 and all interested in science should 

 unite in urging the passage of the pres- 

 ent measure. The text of Senator Mor- 

 gan's bill is as follows: 



Be it enacted by the Senate and 

 House of Representatives of the United 

 States of America in Congress assem- 

 bled, That the United States Naval Ob- 

 servatory shall hereafter be known as 

 the National Observatory of the United 

 States and shall be governed by 

 a director thereof, who shall re- 

 port directly to and be under the super- 

 vision of the Secretary of the Navy. 



Section 2. — That the Director of the 

 National Observatory shall be an emi- 

 nent astronomer, appointed by the 

 President, by and with the advice and 

 consent of the Senate, at a salary of 

 five thousand dollars per annum, and 

 shall be selected from the astronomers 

 of the National Academy of Sciences 

 unless, in the judgment of the President, 

 an American astronomer of higher scien 



