April 2, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



347 



attractive positions elsewhere. It seems im- 

 portant that all the other factors should be 

 brought to public attention so that there may 

 be a general understanding of the situation, 

 resulting in pressure upon Congress and the 

 officials of the administration to preserve what 

 remains of the survey's usefulness. 



The low salaries paid by the government and 

 the needlessly strict prohibition against in- 

 vestments in any kind of industrial projects 

 even remotely connected with survey work are 

 not the only financial handicaps that beset the 

 employees of the Federal Survey. Geologists 

 engaged in field work often incur more or less 

 danger — in some cases a great deal; yet a seri- 

 ous injury will bring no compensation from 

 the government, but will on the contrary gen- 

 erally cost the injured man his position, if his 

 usefulness has been permanently impaired. 

 Cases of severe illness cost the unfortunate 

 geologist full pay during the time lost, so far 

 as it exceeds the arbitrary " sick-leave " allow- 

 ance. Again, the Survey has no provision for 

 pensioning those who have grown old and 

 superannuated in its service. 



A more imjyortant factor, as it seems to many 

 of us, is the less interesting work now-a-days 

 assigned to various members of the Survey. 

 Little by little the amount of scientific re- 

 search carried on by the survey has been cur- 

 tailed in favor of routine statistical and classi- 

 ficatory activities. In large measure survey 

 geologists have been gradually reduced from 

 scientific investigators to technical or scientific 

 clerks who have but little to say about the 

 planning and initiation of their work, and who 

 publicly get but little individual credit for the 

 result. There are many men of zeal and high 

 purpose who are willing to work for a rela- 

 tively small salary provided they have adequate 

 opportunities for and encouragement in the 

 pursuit of their chosen researches; but of late 

 the survey has not been attractive to men of 

 this type. 



Scientific research without appropriate and 

 opportune publication soon becomes a mockery. 

 Long delays in the appearance of survey re- 

 ports have for years been the rule rather than 

 the exception, until the situation has become a 



standing joke both inside and outside the bu- 

 reau. Many a report of field and laboratory 

 investigations has been held in " cold storage " 

 year after year until it has been duplicated and 

 superseded by the work of others. While the 

 war greatly aggravated this condition it was 

 an obvious tendency even before 1914. 



The most serious blow which has been struck 

 at the survey in its entire history has come 

 within the last few months in the guise of an 

 administrative order greatly curtailing the 

 space and facilities available for the work of 

 the Geological Survey. For years members of 

 the survey endured the conditions of the old 

 survey office building — in which the overcrowd- 

 ing was a national disgrace — on the assurance 

 that a new building would soon be constructed 

 wherein there would at last be room enough. 

 No sooner had the survey moved into the new 

 building, however, than the exigencies of the 

 war prevented them from obtaining all the 

 space to which they were apparently entitled. 

 ISTow comes the order, from a source evidently 

 lacking an understanding of how scientific 

 work is done, greatly reducing the already lim- 

 ited quarters and depriving even the more im- 

 portant and distinguished members of the sur- 

 vey of their laiboratories and private offices. 

 Men of national reputation in their science are 

 crowded together three or four in an office 

 suitable for one. Some of the geologists are 

 attempting to do their more important work 

 at their homes, to which they have removed 

 their libraries and working materials normally 

 kept at their survey offices. Others with more 

 fortunate connections manage to continue work 

 in laboratories of the National Museum. 

 Many, however, have cut the Gordian knot by 

 resigning, and still other resignations are fol- 

 lowing from month to month. 



It should be distinctly understood by every 

 one that although the geologists of the survey 

 need and are entitled to salaries appropriate to 

 their positions and in keeping with the in- 

 creased cost of laving, the most serious defect 

 of the survey to-day is the paucity of actual 

 scientific opportunities either for geologists 

 already on the staff or to offer promising young 

 men of the stamp formerly attracted to survey 



