NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—RANSOME. 963 
as a proper governmental function, we may next inquire, What 
should be the ideals and duties of a geological survey? How may 
these ideals be realized and these duties performed ? 
GENERAL LEGAL FUNCTIONS. 
The organic act of the United States Geological Survey specifies 
indirectly and in general terms the field that the organization should 
occupy. It states, with reference to the director, “this officer shall 
have the direction of the Geological Survey and the classification of 
the public lands and examination of the geological structure, mineral 
resources, and products of the national domain.” 
Doubtless the laws or decrees under which other national geologi- 
cal surveys have been established also prescribe to some extent their 
duties. Such legal authorization, however, is as a rule so general as 
to leave room for considerable latitude in its interpretation. I pro- 
pose first to discuss the functions of a national geological survey 
without reference to legal prescription or definition and afterwards 
to consider the extent to which some of the actual conditions inter- 
fere with the realization of these ideals. 
USEFULNESS IN SCIENCE. 
It has been the fashion in some quarters of late to emphasize use- 
fulness as the chief criterion by which to judge the value of scien- 
tific research under Government auspices. It has been intimated 
that this or that scientific bureau of the Government must do “ use- 
ful” work if it is to justify its existence and its expenditure of public 
funds. The statement is usually made with an air of finality, as if 
a troublesome question had been once for all disposed of and the 
path of the future made plain. As a matter of fact, however, when 
it is said that science must be useful in order to receive Government 
support we have really made very little advance. Probably the 
most idealistic scientific man will admit that ultimate usefulness is 
. the justification for scientific research, although that end may not 
enter into his thoughts when he undertakes any particular investi- 
gation with the hope of increasing human knowledge. Men will 
differ very widely, however, as to what is meant by usefulness in 
science. It is well known to all scientific men, although not yet as 
widely recognized by others as it should be, that the utility of re- 
search is not generally predictable. For example, the investigations 
on electricity for hundreds of years preceding the middle of the 
nineteenth century had, so far as could be seen, no practical bear- 
ing. The experiments of Volta, of Galvani, and even those of our 
own Franklin, outside of his invention of the lightning rod, were 
not conducted with any thought of utility and were probably looked 
