COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 299 



An Astrophysical Observatory has been organized under the 

 Smithsonian Institution corresponding to the observatory pro- 

 posed by the committee of the Academy. To this extent, the 

 views of the committee have found favor with Congress. 

 Whether the larger plans will eventually be adopted time alone 

 will reveal. 



The report of the committee of the Academy was printed in 

 the introduction to the volume of testimony given before the 

 Joint Commission. Many high officials were called upon by 

 the Commission to express their views or to make statistical or 

 other statements relative to the matter under investigation, in- 

 cluding the Lieutenant-General of the Army, the Secretaries of 

 War and of the Navy, the heads of the several scientific bureaus 

 concerned and many subordinate officers. The discussion took 

 a wide range but returned repeatedly to the recommendations of 

 the committee of the Academy which formed the text for many 

 remarks. 



The report of the Joint Commission in reality comprises 

 three separate reports. Allison, Hale and Lowry agreed as to 

 the various questions at issue, and Wait also sided with them, 

 except in so far as the Signal Service was concerned. Morgan, 

 Herbert and Wait submitted a separate series of recommenda- 

 tions regarding the latter, while Herbert and Morgan presented 

 a minority report relative to the Coast and Geodetic Survey and 

 the Geological Survey. 



The conclusion of the majority of the Commission regarding 

 the Coast and Geodetic Survey was as follows: 



" .... A majority of the commission concur with the view expressed by the 

 Academy of Sciences, that when the original survey shall have been completed it 

 will be time enough to raise the question whether or not the hydrographic work 

 involved in these resurveys may not then be transferred to the Navy Department ; 

 but until that time the undersigned believe that question should not be seriously 

 considered " ^*^ 



" There is nothing in the testimony to indicate that the work now performed by 

 the Survey can be more efficiently performed if transfer is made, nor is it shown 



'"House Report no. 2740, 49th Congress, ist Session, p. 6. 



