SYMPOSIUM ON SCIENCE AND RECONSTRUCTION 53 



Evidently the future problems of geologv and geography 

 include not only the better organization and pursuit of re- 

 search, but the better dissemination of knowledge of the 

 usefulness and signiticance of these sciences to every-day 

 affairs. Our common schools and high schools should 

 teach some of their reqtiired courses in terms of earth 

 science. Our colleges and universities must develop 

 special courses in geology and geography which will be 

 recognized as essential to professional cotirses in civil, 

 mining, chemical, and ceramic engineering, and to those in 

 economics, sociology, and history. Many engineering 

 schools now give such instruction without requiring geol- 

 ogy. In the future it will not be sufficient to teach only 

 general courses and others adapted to students who are 

 specializing in the earth sciences. 



Similarly, in the routine work of official surveys and 

 bureaus, an effort must be made to meet more of the needs 

 of the mineral industries by cooperation with them, and 

 by making known the results of investigations in common 

 langiuige rather than in the stereoptyped form and profes- 

 sional lingo to which we have been accustomed. The maps 

 presented should display more effectively and in more 

 detail the character, usefulness, and distribution of the 

 rock formations, while continuing to show also as formerly 

 their relative ages and modes of origin. There shotild be 

 more eft'ective consultation and cooperation between state 

 surveys and between state and federal stirveys regarding 

 development of purposes and methods, in order that official 

 geology may be more practical than in the past, and also 

 in order that fundamental problems of origin and correla- 

 tion of the various formations and their enclosed minerals 

 nuiy be attacked on a national scale more vigorously tlian 

 heretofore. Just as the experience of the war indicated 

 the impracticability of centralizing all knowledge and all 

 administrative power in Washington, and the consequent 

 need for state councils, directors, and administrators, so 

 strong, official surveys and bureaus are required in both 

 the national and the state governments, and their work 

 shoidd be better correlated and more cooperative than in 

 the past. 



In regard to pure researeh in the earth sciences, it seems 

 probable that much talent and time has been wasted in the 

 universities and other research institutions by lack of 



