THE RELATION OF THE UNITED STATES 

 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY TO THE PUBLIC* 



By GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director U. S. Geological Survey 



TO SERVE the people is the pur- 

 pose of every Government depart- 

 ment and bureau. As a part of 

 the public service the Geological Sur- 

 vey has functions prescribed by law. In 

 the organic act establishing this bureau 

 twenty-nine years ago it is specified that 

 the Director of the Geological Survey 

 shall be charged with the classification 

 of the public lands and the examination 

 of the geologic structure, mineral re- 

 Miurces and products of the national do- 

 main. Thus did Congress express its 

 recognition of the practical relationship 

 existing between geology ami the min- 

 eral industry as well as its appreciation 

 of the fact that these mineral resources 

 constitute the Nation's material wealth 



The Survey thus became a pioneer 

 agency in the development of the coun- 

 try. Its name expresses the scope and 

 character of its work as national scien- 

 tific, and practical. "Survey"' stands 

 for work in the field, and this branch 

 of the public service is an organization 

 for practical investigation in which the 

 methods of pure science are made to 

 serve utilitarian ends so as to insure 

 the attainment of the economic results 

 desired by the public. To be successful 

 a Government scientific bureau must 

 be practical. 



The extent of the operations of the 

 Survey depends upon the size of the 

 annual appropriations in its behalf. 

 Congress has gradually increased these 

 from $100,000 to more than one and a 

 half million, so that the Geological Sur- 

 vey has from year to year become bet- 

 ter equipped to occupy the large field 

 of public service to which it was given 

 a title in 1879. 



Its activities are all directed toward 



the public benefit, but are so varied as 

 to deserve a simple classification for 

 purposes of description. The explora- 

 tion work of the Survey includes the 

 discovery and mapping of the previ- 

 ously unknown ; the investigations by 

 the Survey have as their purpose the 

 determination of the value of all the 

 new data collected by the fieldmen ; ana 

 the publication side of the work in- 

 volves the making known to the world 

 the results of these explorations and 

 investigations. 



As I speak of the explorations of the 

 Survey, I must mention first the twenty- 

 five to thirty thousand square miles 

 of territory that is mapped each year 

 by the Survey topographers. Explora- 

 tion is the correct term, for our topo- 

 graphic surveys bring out new discov- 

 eries even in portions of the United 

 States long settled. For example, the 

 highest points in such old states as 

 < >hio and Pennsylvania have been de- 

 termined only recently in the course of 

 the field surveys of these areas by our 

 topographers. 



The detailed maps that are being thus 

 made of the country already number 

 i, 800 sheets, which together cover one- 

 third of the area of the United States. 

 These maps constitute the "mother 

 map" of the country in that they are 

 based upon actual surveys, so that the 

 other maps with which the public is 

 familiar, whether published in geog- 

 raphy, atlas, or as a folded state or 

 county map, are to a large extent based 

 upon the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey maps. 



These topographic maps are utilized 

 not only by the map-makers who sell 

 their publications but by the Govern- 



*Address delivered before the Maine State Board of Trade, September 22, 1908. 

 652 



