[35] THE STATUS OF THE FISH COMMISSION. 1173 



Much of the work is now done by volunteers, in addition to duties 

 elsewhere in colleges, scientific institutions, and other departments of 

 government, and in their own time. This is especially true of the 

 heads of scientific departments, whose services money alone would not 

 secure, and not less so of many of the best younger workers, who serve 

 the Commission at extremely low rates of pay for the sake of the ad- 

 vantages they have for i^reparing themselves to hold scientific positions 

 elsewhere. No regular force outside of the staff is kept up throughout 

 the year, and at certain seasons four times as many men are employed 

 as at others. With the departmental system of regular appointments 

 and graded salaries the cost would probably be twice as great as it 

 now is. 



Furthermore, the system of appointments necessarily in vogue in 

 an executive department, with the periodical changes of assignment, 

 which are customary in some of them, would prevent the greatest efiti- 

 ciency in work. We are accustomed to consider the English civil serv- 

 ice to be one of the best in the world, to praise its efiSciency, and to 

 hold it up for emulation. Efficient it may be in departments where rou- 

 tine work is the chief occupation of the officials, but it sometimes falls 

 short in the matter of organizations requiring special qualifications in 



couiraissiou correspondiug in every esseutial respect to the United States Fish Com- 

 mission. It is proposed to make it a cabinet office, but this has not been done. Other 

 offices of a similar character are the National Board of Health, the Civil Service Com- 

 mission, the United States Tariff Commission, the United States Fish Commission, 

 the Government Printing Office, the Library of Congress, the District Government, 

 Congress itself, the Smithsonian Institution, National Academy of Sciences, &c. All 

 these bodies are distinct and separate in their organization and responsible in part to 

 the President and in part to Congress, but they are not related in any way to a Cabi- 

 net officer. The United States Fish Commission exactly corresponds to its title, and 

 ?■« a commission to do certain things ordered by Congress. The Commissioner is ap- 

 pointed by the President, and makes his report directly to Congress, and may be in a 

 certain way considered a Congressional official. There is a Senate Committee on 

 Fish and Fisheries which is related to the United States Fish Commission, and I pre- 

 sume in time there will be a committee of the same character in the House having 

 direct relationship to it. The Civil Service Commission is related in a similar manner 

 directly to the President, and very properly is not placed in inmiediate connection 

 with any Department, as it regulates and controls them all. 



The Fish Commission, as has been stated, is authorized by Congress to call upon 

 any Department for aid in its work, which has always been readily and promptly 

 granted. To place it under one Department rather than another would be to confine 

 its relationships entirely to that Department, as the others would no longer render 

 the same readj' assistance. 



If the Fish Commission is to be subordinated to any Department, it should be by 

 all means to the Smithsonian Institution, which is the only branch of the Government 

 to which it is akin in purpose and method. That it is scientific and not executive in 

 its methods has already been shown. Departmental subordination always dampens 

 the enthusiasm and stifles the energy of scientific workers, though many Department 

 officers in their individual capacities do excellent work. Especially unfortunate 

 would be subordination to a division of the Government whose interests, so far as 

 science is involved, are naturally and necessari|y in lines quite at variance with the 

 biological investigation for which the Fish Com^pission was organized. 



