IT (J Thirty-Second Annual Meeting 



plied with such rapidity in our day, and have become so promi- 

 nent, and complicated, and important, were in the air, although 

 they had, as yet, hardly begun their existence in tangible form. 



There was need for a leader and an organizer; for a man 

 who, while well trained in some branch of science, and thus 

 qualified to distinguish the mere pretender from the true inves- 

 tigator, was also endowed with the breadth of view and the cath- 

 olicity of interest which tit one for generous admiration for suc- 

 cess in other fields, and lead him to do all in his power to pro- 

 mote it. 



A man was needed who could inspire the confidence of his- 

 colleagues and contemporaries, sympathize with and encourage 

 the young, reconcile the rivalries and Jealousies of his fellow 

 workers; and thus bring it about that as the various scientific 

 bureaus of the government began to be organized and equipped 

 for their duties, they grew up in a spirit of friendly co-operatioit 

 and mutual aid. 



There was need for a man whose integrity and unselfishness- 

 of purpose and earnestness and simplicity of character, and 

 clearness and directness of thought and speech and action wer^ 

 so evident and so universally known and esteemed, that he could 

 command a friendly hearing from the seat of government, and 

 gain the intelligent interest and support of congress for new 

 and expensive plans to extend the scope and increase the- 

 efficiency of our scientific bureaus. 



Professor Baird was eminently fitted for this peculiar and 

 difficult field of usefulness. He had many able and eminent 

 allies and fellow workers, and while he must not have all the 

 credit for the wisdom with which the scientific work of our gov- 

 ernment was organized and co-ordinated, it is nevertheless a faci 

 that there are few scientific bureaus which do not still exhibit 

 the 'inpression of his hand, while some of them are his alone. 



My own acquaintance with him began in the later years ot 

 his life, at the time when he was fully occupied in developing 

 the plans and in laying the foundations upon which such stately 

 edifices have been reared ; so I am unable to speak of his yoimger 

 days; but I cannot believe that he willingly turned aside from 

 his earlier studies of ornithologv and general natural historv, or 



