358 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1372 



joint commission on reorganization of the 

 administrative branch of the Federal Govern- 

 ment was brought up for two hours' debate on 

 that date and passed by the House, having 

 already passed the Senate on May 10. The 

 bill became Public Eesolution No. 54 on 

 December 30 without executive approval. The 

 resolution requires the committee to make a 

 report in December, 1922. Mr. Smoot an- 

 nounced in February that the committee 

 would do the work personally and would not 

 turn it over to the Bureau of Efficiency or 

 any other governmental agency. Considerable 

 shifting and rearrangement of the scientific 

 bureaus has been predicted as a probable out- 

 come of the reorganization movement. 



The House Committee on Patents recom- 

 mended on December 10 that the Nolan 

 Patent Office biU (H.E. 11984) be sent to 

 conference, but unanimous consent for such 

 reference was refused in the House. Later, on 

 December 14, the bill was sent to conference, 

 and hearings were reopened by the conference 

 committee in January. Section 9 of the bill, 

 providing for the issuance of patents to Fed- 

 eral employees, continued to meet with oppo- 

 sition from commercial and industrial inter- 

 ests, but was retained in the bill. The House 

 agreed to the conference report on February 

 16. Opposition developed in the Senate, and 

 the bill did not reach final action before the 

 end of the session on March 4. 



The bill for Federal supervision of the 

 nitrate plants (S. 3390), including provision 

 for research on the fixation of nitrogen, was 

 made the unfinished business in the Senate on 

 December 15. After several debates and the 

 adoption of a number of amendments, the bill 

 passed the Senate on January 14. The House 

 took no final action. 



The American Society of Zoologists, at its 

 annual meeting on December 28-30, 1920, 

 passed resolutions protesting against the pas- 

 sage of that part of H.E. 7785 (the scientific 

 apparatus tariff biU) which abolishes the 

 " duty-free privilege " to educational institu- 

 tions. Occasional protests against this feature 

 of the bill have been discussed in current 

 scientific and technical periodicals. This 

 feature of the bill was brought up in a hear- 



ing on the Fordney emergency tariff bill be- 

 fore the House Committee on Ways and Means 

 on February 14, and the sentiment of the 

 committee seemed to be strongly in favor of 

 eliminating the duty-free privilege on chem- 

 ical glassware, chemical porcelain and appa- 

 ratus. The Fordney bill passed both houses, 

 but was vetoed by the president. 



As for the special bill for a tariff on scien- 

 tific supplies (H.E. Y785), although it had 

 passed the House as long ago as August 2, 

 1919, the Senate took no final action and it 

 lapsed with the adjournment on March 4. 



A bill " to fix the metric system of weights 

 and measures as the single standard for 

 weights and measures " was introduced in the 

 House by Mr. Britten on December 29 (H.E. 

 15420), and in the Senate by Mr. Freling- 

 huysen (by request) on December 18 (S. 

 4675). The bills are said to have been 

 " fathered " by the World Trade Club of San 

 Francisco. They were referred to the re- 

 spective weights and measures committees and 

 no further action was taken. 



The Smith-Towner bill to create a Depart- 

 ment of Education (S. 1017 and H.E. 7) after 

 lying dormant through nearly the entire life 

 of the Congress, was reported in the House on 

 January 17 and in Senate on March 1, but 

 progressed no further. 



A step toward the erection of the proposed 

 building for the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences was taken in the inti'oduction of S. 4645, 

 " to authorize the Commissioners of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia to close upper Water Street 

 between 21st and 22d Streets, N.W." The bill 

 pased the Senate on February 24, but ad- 

 vanced no further. 



With the adjournment of the Sixty-sixth 

 Congress at noon on March 4, various other 

 bills and resolutions which are of interest to 

 scientific men either perished in committees 

 or at an intermediate stage of progress. 



LECTURES BEFORE THE SIOUX CITY 

 ACADEMY 



The Academy of Science and Letters of 

 Sioux City, Iowa, arranged for the present 

 year a weekly lecture program as follows: 



