SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 303 



Council will receive a salary of Si 0,000 per year, and the chairmen of 

 divisions, as well as the executive secretary of the Council, will receive 

 $6000. 



Prof. J. C. Merriam, of the University of California, is at present 

 Acting Chairman of the Council. Officers of some of the divisions have 

 been selected as follows: Physical Sciences, Maj. C. E. Mendenhall, 

 chairman; Engineering, Dr. H. M. HowE, chairman, Mr. G. H. Clev- 

 Enger, vice-chairman; Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Lieut. 

 Col. W. D. Bancroft, chairman, Prof. Julius Stieglitz, vice-chairman; 

 Biology and Agriculture, Prof. C. E. McClung, chairman, Prof. L. R. 

 Jones, vice-chairman. 



Further information on the organization of the Council will be pre- 

 sented as soon as the organization is completed. 



UNION OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL WORKERS 



A mass meeting of scientific and technical employees of the federal 

 Government, called by a committee consisting of H. L. Shantz (Agri- 

 culture), W. L. Thurber (Interior), L. W. Chaney (Labor), P. ' G. 

 Agnew (Commerce), and F. L. Lewton (Smithsonian), was held at the 

 National Museum on Thursday, May 8, 191 9. The attendance was 

 about 400. R. H. True, of the Department of Agriculture, presided. 

 The call for the meeting stated the following reasons for the formation 

 of an organization: 



Improvement of conditions and facilities for more effective scientific 

 and technical work; adequate presentation of the needs and results of 

 such work to the public and to legislative and administrative officers; 

 greater freedom in both official and non-official activities; just and rea- 

 sonable salaries based on service performed and the economic and social 

 conditions which prevail; greater public recognition of the aims and 

 purposes of research; advancement of science and technology as an 

 essential element of national life. 



After a statement concerning the British National Union of Scientific 

 Workers and similar movements in Great Britain, the following three 

 plans were discussed: 



(i) To work only through existing organizations, namely, the Acad- 

 emy and the National Research Council; (2) to form an independent 

 organization of those federal employees doing scientific or technical 

 work; (3) to form a scientific "and technical branch of Federal Employees' 

 Union No. (2).^ 



Plan No. (i) received very httle support. A large number of speakers 

 discussed plans Nos. (2) and (3). It was generally agreed that organi- 

 zation was necessary; that the situation of the scientific and technical 

 bureaus is serious, as the better men tend to leave and can not be re- 

 placed under the existing salary scale; and that cooperation with ex- 

 isting organizations is not excluded by either Plan (2) or Plan (3). 



1 Federal Employees' Union No. i was organized in San Francisco. No. 2 

 embraces practically all governmental bureaus in the District of Columbia. 



