150 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



soldier in the regular or volunter service, or both, he 

 shall, if he make application therefor to the President, 

 be retired from active service and placed on the re- 

 tired Jist; and when an officer is sixty-four years of 

 age, he shall be retired from active service and placed 

 on the retired list : Provided further. That the Gen- 

 eral of the Army, when retired, shall be retired with- 

 out reduction in his current pay and allowances ; and 

 no act now in force shall be so construed as to limit 

 or restrict the retirement of officers as herein provided 

 for : Provided further, That any officer who is super- 

 numerary to the permanent organization of the army 

 as provided by law may, at his own request, be hon- 

 orably discharged from the army, and shall there- 

 upon receive one year's pay for each five years of his 

 service, but no officer shall receive more than three 

 years' pay in all. 



COMMON PEIME MERIDIAN. In the House, 

 on June 6th, the following joint resolution 

 was considered : 



Joint resolution to authorize the President of the 

 United States to call an international conference to 

 fix on and recommend for universal adoption a com- 

 mon prime meridian to be used in the reckoning of 

 longitude and in the regulation of time throughout 

 the world. 



The Speaker: "The question recurs on or- 

 dering the joint resolution to be engrossed and 

 read the third time." 



Mr. Flower, of New York : " Mr. Speaker, 

 this joint resolution was introduced by my- 

 self and referred to the Committee on Foreign 

 Affairs. There are over three thousand scien- 

 tists in this country who ask the passage of 

 this resolution. It was drawn up by General 

 Hazen, and is distinctively an American meas- 

 ure. If this convention is not convened by us 

 it will be by other nations. It will not cost 

 the Government one dollar." 



Mr. Carlisle, of Kentucky: "I would like to 

 ask the gentleman from New York if he will 

 not accept such an amendment to this joint 

 resolution as will provide for the appointment 

 of these delegates by the President either from 

 the officers of the navy or from the Engineer 

 Corps? These are already paid by the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States, and there is no 

 necessity for subjecting the Treasury to addi- 

 tional expense in the selection of such a board 

 from outside scientists, when officers capable 

 of performing the service are already being 

 paid by the Government. We have a board of 

 competent officers connected with the Observa- 

 tory, the Coast Survey, and the Engineer 

 Corps of the army, from whom such selec- 

 tions could be made." 



Mr. Kasson, of Iowa : " The scientific peo- 

 ple of the country are almost unanimous in 

 their recommendations touching the impor- 

 tance of this matter. I have a letter myself 

 from President Barnard, of Columbia College, 

 New York, and have seen papers from others, 

 who suggest that it should be left to the 

 discretion of the President to select this 

 board." 



Mr. Belmont, of New York: "I do not 

 think that necessarily any compensation will 

 be paid to the delegates. The delegates from 



foreign governments will, of course, look to 

 their own governments. Our own delegates 

 will only be three in number." 



Mr. Flower: "I desire to have printed as 

 part of my remarks the report submitted by 

 my colleague (Mr. Belmont) from the Com- 

 mitteee on Foreign Affairs." 



The report is as follows : 



The Committee on Foreign Affairs, ito whom was 

 referred joint resolution No. 209, authorizing the 

 President to call an international congress to fix and 

 recommend a common prime meridian, having had 

 the same under consideration, make the following 

 report : 



There is at present no common and accepted stand- 

 ard for the computation of time for other than astro- 

 nomical purposes. In the absence of agreement seri- 

 ous embarrassments are felt in the ordinary affairs of 

 modern commerce, especially since the wide-spread 

 extension of telegraphic communication and railroad 

 transportation, and, owing to the diversity of methods 

 now in use for indicating points on the earth's sur- 

 face, navigators, geographers, and all who have oc- 

 casion to use charts or maps, are put to the greatest 

 inconvenience. International agreement upon this 

 subject is demanded more imperatively every day, 

 both by science and by trade. We have had as pro- 

 visional or partial standards the meridians of Alex- 

 andria, the Canary Islands, Toledo, Cracow, Uran- 

 bourg, Copenhagen, Goes, Pisa, London, Paris, 

 Kome, Greenwich, Vienna, Ulm, Berlin, Nuremberg, 

 Venice, Bologna, Augsburg, Kouen, Dantsic, Milan, 

 Washington, and other places. As long ago as the 

 time of Kichelieu, an attempt was made to put an end 

 to the confusion arising out of so great a variety of 

 usages, and a congress was invited to assemble in 

 Pans, in 1630, to agree, if possible, upon a common 

 meridian. In speaking of this congress, Professor 

 Barnard, of Columbia College, says : 



"The Island of Ferro, the most southwesterly of 

 the Canary Islands, was fixed upon, and a royal order 

 establishing this decision was promulgated in July of 

 the same year. Unfortunately, however, the exact 

 latitude of Ferro with reference to any point on the 

 continent of Europe was at that time unknown. The 

 determination of its position was never made by 

 authority, and at length, in 1724, it was resolved to 

 assume it as 20 west from Paris. To name the isl- 

 and, therefore, without naming the point in it, was 

 to leave the meridian unfixed, even had its general 

 position been better known ; at any rate this effort to 

 establish uniformity was without practical result." 



The Government has by section 435 of the Kevised 

 Statutes adopted the Greenwich meridian for nautical 

 purposes, but the establishment of the Meteorological 

 Bureau and Signal-Service system, with postal and 

 other stations extending over nearly four hours of 

 solar time in North America, has already compelled 

 the adoption of the standard time of 7.35 A. M. at 

 Washington, as the moment of making telegraphic 

 reports from all stations, and the observations on our 

 naval vessels are made at the same hour of Washing- 

 ton time. There is already pending in this Congresr 

 a measure (H. K. 5009) for securing national standan 

 time to our ports of entry and principal cities. Th : 

 would accomplish what is desired in the regulation 

 time in the United States, and might be incorporat 

 in any internal system to be adopted, but the remai 

 in<r points as to the construction of charts and t 

 reckoning of longitudes would require the cone 

 rence of other nations, and could only be deterrnin 

 by an international convention. 



The propositions embodied in this resolution ha 

 been discussed in this country and in Europe ' 

 various commercial and scientific bodies, and 

 necessity for an international convention is general 

 conceded. At the recent meeting in Cologne ,* 

 Venice, the idea of holding such a convention 



