PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. XXV 



I understaiKl that tlie wish at present is to found a school of research by utiUzing 

 the existing scientific departments and the bureaus of the Government through the 

 means of an administrative office under tJic Sinilhsoniaii Instltulio)i. This is, of course, 

 to be managed ])y the Regents, and it is claimed that it can be supported by a small 

 appropriation from Congress. I am not, then, considering the abstract merits or the 

 difficulties of a j)roposal to found such a system of research, so much as the difficulties 

 of establishing it under this Institution. 



The proposition has much in its favor from one point of view; and yet it seems 

 questionable whether this connection even furnishes the best means ol producing the 

 results anticipated when we consider that each scientific bureau and office has grown 

 out of some jjractical need of the Government; that each at all times is occupied on 

 practical work, and that each now looks to the head of its department and not to 

 the Institution as having the sole right to direct any part of its affairs. Let me say, 

 too, that in an important Ijranch of science like i)hysics, no bureau, with one unim- 

 jiortant exception, has any laVjoratory worth mentioning; that there is at pre.sent but 

 one chemical lal)oratory in Washington which could be considered with reference to 

 the admission of students, since in the rest not a score of students could be accom- 

 modated if a hundred applied; and that the Regents would almost necessarily be 

 called upon to find means to create these costly accessories of the plan, although they 

 are now representing to Congress the insufficiency of its appropriations to meet the 

 needs of the special work which is already committed to them. 



What is more important, the Smithsonian Institution has been founded and carried 

 on with functions so distinct from that of teaching or of a university, that to create 

 a new department in it for the proposed use would be like remaking tiie whole 

 machinery of its action. The change that is proposed, though apparently superficial, 

 is radical, and in advance of experiment no one knows where it will lead. 



It is well, then, to consider here, that while the money question is of very great 

 importance indeed, it is for the moment secondary. If some one desiring to conduct 

 such a scheme were to offer to give outright to the Regents of the Institution a fund 

 as large as its present one, which was to be used for managing a bureau of graduate 

 study and research (and I should consider even this amount insufficient), I should, 

 if my opinion were sought, ask to have the plan considered only with the under- 

 standing that this Institution was distinctly altering its functions in accepting the 

 money for such a i)urpose. 



These gentlemen suggest an appropriation of something like $50,000, which I under- 

 stand them to believe will be sufficient, because of their hope to secure continuous 

 voluntary work by the gratuitous or nearly unpaid contributions of our local men oi 

 science. This sum would, however, I think, prove wholly inatlecpiate. Being myself 

 long a student of science here, I may be allowed to saj' that while in my own knowl- 

 edge there are some who like to teach and would do it without reward, and do it well, 

 they are in an almost negligible proportion to the large mmiber who have (it should 

 always be remembered) accei)ted tlie lower salaries given here, as against higher 

 ones they could obtain in colleges and universities, because no condition of tuition is 

 now attached to their work of research. 



If upon careful consideration it is found that the scientific departments and bureaus 

 of the Government could be advantageously used in connection with other agencies 

 as auxiliaries for post-graduate study, without interfering with their primary functions, 

 I, for one, should be glad to see this done. The Institution and all its branches are 

 now and always have been open to any properly accredited investigator so far as the 

 limited accommodations and the regular work permit. 



The comnmnication under consideration by your committee comes from rejiresenta- 

 tives of the agricultural colleges and agricultural experiment stations created, in the 

 main, by the General Government. Their relations to it have always been intimate, 

 and they present the most important outcome of Congressional action for the higher 



