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1t 



518 AGRICULTURAL APPnOPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



$4,000 to SI 0,000. Now, averages are deceptive, because it is not 

 the average man who leads the work, it is the exceptional man, and 

 all of these institutions have maximum salaries which are up to 

 $7,500, $8,000, and $10,000, and they arc therebj^ enabled to hold the 

 exceptional men by using those maximums. 



During this year we have lost a number of our strongest men to 1 \ 

 other governments and to other institutions. On the 1st of January ' 



one of our strong scientific men is going out as the dean of one of 

 the agricultural schools. That is good. We want to have the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture workers change back and forth with the State 

 institutions; it should be so. But we want to be in a position to 

 take them the other way. We offered the dean of a college a posi- 

 tion with the department, but we could not get him; we simply can | 

 not get the leadership we want under the conditions that exist. ' 



We have no hope of getting a man who holds the position of dean in 

 an institution, and yet those institutions are in a position to offer 

 positions to our men. Five or six of our men have had an oppor- 

 tunity to accept deanships, but the fact that recognition was made 

 of the possibilities and opportunities in scientific work in the depart- 

 ment this year probablv saved all but one of those men from accept- 

 ing the ofi'ers, while if our maximum had ramained at $4,500 we 

 would have lost several of those men. % 



Mr. Wason. Do you not think that if we made the salaries in your S 



department comparable with the salaries of the large endowed i 



institutions of the country you would still find the same embarassing 

 situation of being unable to draw leaders from those institutions 

 that 3'^ou find now ? 



Doctor Ball. We would have diflTiculty, but we would be able to 

 draw leadership from those institutions not quite as favorably 

 located as to salaries. There is a wonderful opportunity for a man 

 in taking charge of a great national project, but that does not make 

 up for inability to keep his family m decency and comfort. If we 

 could pay enough so that a m.an could live in Washington comfort- 

 ably, just reasonably comfortable, the same way he can live in these 

 other places, I would have no fear of our inability to get that leader- 

 ship, but we must reach that point. We do not need to bid against 

 commercial salaries and that would not bo ne'cessary. Then, some 

 day we must consider the question of better retirement privileges 

 for scientific men. 



The present retirement act, as j^ou understand, is entirely based 

 on the great body of clerks; it was not intended especially to cover 

 scientific men. It is fairly adequate for the average salaries of the 

 clerical force, but it is absolutely inadequate as to scientific men, so 

 that the first need is a gooil salary and then good retirement privi- 

 leges. Wlien that day comes, the Government will have no trouble 

 in holding leadership. I hope that the day will come when men will 

 be moving back and forth freely between colleges, universities, and 

 the Department of Agriculture, ])ut we must have the day come when 

 it is not all a movement out and not a movement in. 



Mr. BuciiAXAX. JIave you any ick'a as to how many scientific 

 investigators you have in the department? 



Doctor Ball. We have ajiproximately 3,740; at least, that is the 

 estimate made a year ago. On that same basis of figuring, all the 

 other Government departments together luive about 3,200. 



