ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XLVII 
chemist rather than under that of the Departments which are most 
interested in the composition and quality of these articles? This does 
not seem to me to be a self-evident proposition by any means. 
The opinion of a scientific man as to whether the Government 
should or should not undertake to carry out any particular branch of 
scientific research and publish the results, whether it should attempt 
to do such work through officers of the Army and Navy, or more 
or less exclusively through persons specially employed for the pur- 
pose, whether the scientific work shall be done under the direction 
of those who wish to use, and care only for, the practical results, or 
whether the scientific man shall himself be the administrative head 
and direct the manner in which his results.shall be applied; the 
opinion of a scientific man on such points, I say, will differ accord- 
ing to the part he expects or desires to take in the work, according 
to the nature of the work, according to whether he is an Army 
or Navy officer or not, according to whether he takes more 
pleasure in scientific investigations than in administrative prob- 
lems, and so forth. 
It is necessary, therefore, to apply a correction for personal equa- 
tion to each individual set of opinions before its true weight and value 
ean be estimated, and, unfortunately, no general formula for this 
purpose has yet been worked out. 
I can only indicate my own opinions, which are those of an Army 
officer, who has all he wants to do, who does not covet any of his 
neighbors’ work or goods, and who does not care to have any more 
masters than those whom he is at present trying to serve. You see 
that I give you some of the data for the formula by which you are 
to correct my statements, but this is all I can do. 
I am not inclined at present to urge the creation of a department 
of science as an independent department of the Government having 
at its head a Cabinet officer. Whether such an organization may 
become expedient in the future seems to me doubtful; but at all 
events I think the time has not yet come for it. 
I do not believe that Government should undertake scientific 
work merely or mainly because it is scientific, or because some 
useful results may possibly be obtained from it. It should do, or 
cause to be done, such scientific work as is needful for its own in- 
formation and guidance when such work cannot be done, or cannot 
be done so cheaply or conveniently, by private enterprise. Some 
kinds of work it can best have done by private contract, and not by 
