WEATHER BUEEAU. 105 



and weather advices to aviators. This compels the bureau to extend 

 its observations and measurements above the surface into the free air, 

 which is being done in a very limited way at the present time by 

 means of kites and little so-called pilot balloons. 



The historian following the growth of the bureau to its present 

 50 years of maturity may find in the public press and like sources 

 these and man}^ more detailed accounts of the useful work being 

 done. 



The confidence of the public at the present time in the forecasts, 

 warnings, and advices of the bureau has been expressed over and 

 over again in print and statement. Evidence of it is found, more- 

 over, in the urgent appeals from many interests and many localities 

 for extensions and new features of service. 



It need not be said that all such activities require expenditure of 

 public funds. Instruments must be purchased and maintained in 

 operation, offices rented, and many expenses incurred which to-day 

 are much in excess of the same costs before the war. If we place 

 the population of the United States, including all outlying posses- 

 sions except the Philippines, at only 100 millions, 2 cents per annum 

 from each man, woman, and child would more than pay the entire 

 costs of maintaining the Weather Bureau work. The time has come 

 when, with the prevailing high costs, the bureau is unable to fully 

 maintain its work, much less meet increasing demands for service, 

 with its present facilities. Practically every one of its more than 

 200 field stations is operating under the minimum number of per- 

 sonnel, often in crowded offices, and witli no flexibility to meet tem- 

 porary losses from sickness, absence on leave, and unfilled vacancies. 

 \Vliat happens is overtime hours of work and loss of vacations, with 

 corresponding fatigue, discouragement, dissatisfaction, and ineffi- 

 ciency. In these post-war times of insistent "effort at curtailment of 

 public expenditures and the securing of the maximum of efficiency 

 and economy in Government administration, the Weather Bureau 

 feels it can invite the closest investigation of its status. If anyone 

 supposes the maximum return is not being given him, let him visit 

 any one of the principal stations and ascertain for himself its pro- 

 gram of work and service, and the low salary scale which has pre- 

 vailed for years because of rigid statutory limitations and peculiar 

 conditions of compensation established in this bureau years before 

 the war and which still continue. Increases are necessary to main- 

 tain and extend this useful service. 



The annual program and routine of the public service of the 

 Weather Bureau is not a heritage handed down to us from the distant 

 past or even from the last generation. It is conspicuously a crea- 

 tion and development of tlTe leaders and seniors in its present per- 

 sonnel, including the great contributions from a small number of 

 faithful men and brilliant meteorologists who have passed beyond. 

 We are the generation which is passing on to our successors a highly 

 . organized and developed service. Our task, our responsibility, is to 

 recruit and train those who are to carry on and perfect this work in 

 the future. This will not be possible unless the salary scales and 

 readjustments which already have been worked out by the reclassi- 

 fication agencies are granted. Until that is done few college-bred 

 men and students of science, equipped intellectually to meet the re- 

 quirements, will be attracted from other lines of endeavor. 



