COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 27 r 



Professor J. D. Whitney, in an article in the North American 

 Review, remarked: 



" The matter has already been up before a committee of Congress, and a very 

 unpleasant altercation had between the officers and employees of the War Depart- 

 ment on one side and of the Interior on the other No good has been 



accomplished by the Congressional investigation ; the work is still going on exactly 

 as before. Instead of a careful and systematic consolidation of all the United 

 States geographical and geological work in the Far West, under one supervision, 

 in one department, there is just that method employed which leads to bad results 

 and great waste of money. Congress is at this moment paying to have the same 

 work done, on the same ground, by two, if not three, different parties, and in two 



different departments Liberal appropriations were made for both classes 



[military and civil] by Congress, this year as well as the last, and how long this 

 condition of things will be allowed to contiue no one can foresee." ^"^ 



The criticisms of the various surveys contained in the article 

 just quoted were not acceptable to the War Department, Gen- 

 eral Comstock, the director of the survey of the Great Lakes, 

 claiming that since the question of cost had not been considered 

 they were " worthless and misleading." "" 



The matter remained in controversy for some three years 

 longer. Finally, in 1878, the Appropriations Committee of the 

 House announced its determination not to recommend further 

 appropriations for the surveys until some plan of consolidation 

 had been determined upon. On March 8, 1878, a demand was 

 made on the War Department and the Department of the Interior 

 for a statement as to the cost of all the surveys carried on by those 

 departments, and the extent to which their fields of operation 

 overlapped. 



The Sundry Civil Act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 

 1879,"^ contained the following provision: 



" And the National Academy of Sciences is hereby required, at their next 

 meeting, to take into consideration the methods and expenses of conducting all 

 surveys of a scientific character under the War or Interior Department and the 



""J. D. Whitney. Geographical and Geological Surveys, Nortli American Review, 

 vol. 121, 1875, pp. 83-84. See also House Report no. 612, and Senate Report no. 311, 43d 

 Congress, ist Session; and House Exec. Doc. no. 240, 43d Congress, ist Session. 



'"^ Sen. Exec. Doc. no. 21, 45th Congress, 3d Session, p. 10. 



""Approved June 20, 1878. 



