276 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



he was attempting to obtain appropriations for the institutions 

 under his charge. 



The salary was always inadequate to the responsibilities of the 

 situation, and it devolved on the head to present the claims and 

 induce Congress to make liberal appropriations, a most difficult 

 and disagreeable work for a man of his training, requiring tact 

 and diplomacy of no ordinary character; but in this work he was 

 remarkably successful, and his addresses to the committees of 

 appropriations of the House and Senate were invariably received 

 with attention, and his claims allowed. He had a remarkable 

 faculty of inspiring confidence, while his innate modesty gained 

 him friends among those who believed they knew a strong honest 

 man, when they saw one. 



Baird never demanded more than was reasonable, and his policy 

 was to educate the people in advance to the necessities of the situa- 

 tion, so that congressmen as a rule gave his demands attention 

 and their hearty support. Professor Baird never lost sight of the 

 fact that while the head of the Smithsonian Institution he was the 

 custodian of a public trust, and a public servant. He was con- 

 scientious in all his methods, and always drove a good bargain for 

 the government and people. This was well known in Congress, 

 and an influential senator is quoted as saying: "I am willing to 

 vote the money asked for by Professor Baird, for he will get two 

 dollars worth for every dollar we give him, one-half by direct pur- 

 chase and one-half by gift." This statement while true does not do 

 full justice to the remarkable administrative skill of the incumbent. 

 He literally turned every branch of the government into a clearing- 

 house for the National Museum and the Smithsonian Institution ; 

 the consulates, the agents of the government, surgeons, army offi- 

 cers, ministers, soldiers, lighthouse keepers, revenue service, of- 

 ficers of the army and marine corps, the engineer department, 

 no branch of the service was overlooked by this indefatigable 

 collector who had the power to interest everyone in his work and 

 to induce them to send in animals, plants, minerals, fossils, fruits 

 and flowers, or Indian implements from the localities in which 

 they were stationed, while consuls and ministers were induced to 



