90 General xi. W. Greehj — Geography of the Air. 



express its appreciation of the merits of the Signal service me- 

 teorological exhibit, and consequently sent a special letter. A 

 diploma of honor, the highest award granted, was received from 

 the National exhibition of electricity at Paris ; and a letter of 

 distinction, also the highest award, came from the Geographical 

 exhibition congress at Vienna, Austria, for tri-daily weather 

 charts. 



Some Americans may deprecate the strong language used in 

 these resolutions, but it should be borne in mind that distance 

 is necessary to give a just perspective to all great undertakings. 

 If it be considered that no nation can justly estimate the tenor 

 and effect, either of its ordinary and average contributions to 

 modern progress or of its greatest achievements, so a just opinion 

 of the ability displayed in the management of any service, or of 

 the results obtained, can rarely, if ever, be given by the scien- 

 tists of that country. Their mental vision is liable to dis- 

 tortion, perhaps through indifference to or distaste for the work 

 in question ; perhaps by a sense of present or fear of possible 

 encroachment on their own lines of research; perhaps by a 

 feeling of scientific jealously, either personal to the staff con- 

 cerned or general as to the branch of natural science under 

 inquiry. One does not have to go out of the city of Wash- 

 ington to hear disparaging and unprofessional reflections on the 

 scientific standing of persons, the highest in the opinion of the 

 world in their specialties ; and as with men, so with l:)ureaus. 



Be this as it may, the Weather bureau under military admin- 

 istration has made its indelible impression upon the meteoro- 

 logical societies of all civilized countries from year to year ; and 

 even in countries where a lurking suspicion of jealously toward 

 the growing scientific importance of the United States has 

 existed, in these countries as in all others the means and 

 methods employed in the United States are being followed. 



It was interesting at the late conference of meteorological 

 chiefs in September, 1891, at Munich, Bavaria, to note from 

 time to time that the military Weather bureau of the United 

 States had been the only office which had endeavored to live up 

 to the scientific meteorological ideals elaborated and endorsed 

 by previous conferences and congresses. Similarly it may be 

 mentioned that the same peculiarity developed at the Interna- 

 tional polar congress, wherein it appears that the United States, 



