COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 295 



COMMITTEE ON THE SIGNAL SERVICE OF THE ARMY, THE 

 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY, 

 AND THE HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE OF THE NAVY DEPART- 

 MENT. 1884 



In the Sundry Civil Act approved July 7, 1884, Congress 

 directed the appointment of a joint commission of the Senate 

 and House to consider and report on the organization of the 

 Signal Service of the Army, the Geological Survey, the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, and the Hydrographic Office of the Navy 

 Department " with the view to secure greater efficiency and 

 economy of administration of the public service in said bureaus." 

 It would appear that the demand for this inquiry had a double 

 origin. In Congress and in the country generally it was thought 

 that the weather service, which was organized under the Signal 

 Service of the Army, would be improved and extended if it 

 were taken out from under the control of the War Department 

 and placed in charge of civilians. A separate inquiry into this 

 matter was at first proposed, but subsequently it was merged with 

 an inquiry into the relationships of the several national surveys. 

 Regarding the latter the Joint Commission remarked in its 

 report: 



" It has been frequently stated in the course of debates in Congress that the 

 several scientific Bureaus named were engaged in unnecessary work, so far as prac- 

 tical results were concerned, and also that there was a duplication of work, two or 

 more Bureaus being engaged in substantially the same character of investigation 

 and in the execution of the same work. It was claimed, especially, that the 

 Geological Survey and the Coast and Geodetic Survey were duplicating their 

 work; and it was also claimed that the work of the Coast Survey proper could be 

 more economically performed under the direction of the Navy Department by use 

 of the force and the organization in that Department known as the Hydrographic 

 Office, and that that work should be transferred from the Treasury to the 

 Navy." 136 



As originally organized, the Joint Commission consisted of 

 Senators Wm. B. Allison (chairman), Eugene Hale, and Geo. 

 H. Pendleton, and Representatives Robert Lowry, Hilary A. 

 Herbert and Theodore Lyman (secretary). The Commission 



1X8 House Reports, 49th Congress, ist Session, Rep. no. 2740, pp. 1-2. 



