Decempeb 18, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



873 



and use the central facts about our 

 streams. 



Until the work of river improvement is 

 undertaken in a modern way it can not 

 have results that will meet the needs of 

 this modern nation. These needs should 

 be met without further dilly-dallying or 

 delay. The plan which promises the best 

 and quickest results is that of a permanent 

 commission authorized to coordinate the 

 work of all the government departments 

 relating to waterways, and to frame and 

 supervise the execution of a comprehensive 

 plan. Under such a commission the actual 

 work of construction might be intrusted to 

 the reclamation service or to the military 

 engineers, acting with a sufficient number 

 of civilians to continue the work in time of 

 war; or it might be divided between the 

 reclamation service and the corps of engi- 

 neers. Funds should be provided from 

 current revenues, if it is deemed wise — 

 otherwise from the sale of bonds. The 

 essential thing is that the work should go 

 forward under the best possible plan and 

 with the least possible delay. We should 

 have a new type of work and a new organi- 

 zation for planning and directing it. The 

 time for playing with our waterways is 

 past. The country demands results. 



I urge that all our national parks adja- 

 cent to national forests be placed com- 

 pletely under the control of the forest 

 service of the agricultural department, in- 

 stead of leaving them as they now are, under 

 the interior department and policed by the 

 army. The congress should provide for 

 superintendents, with adequate corps of 

 first-class civilian scouts, or rangers, and, 

 further, place the road construction under 

 the superintendent instead of leaving it 

 with the war department. Such a change 

 in park management would result in econ- 

 omy and avoid the difficulties of adminis- 

 tration which now arise from having the 

 responsibility of care and protection di- 



vided between different departments. 

 The need for this course is peculiarly great 

 in the Yellowstone Park. This, like the 

 Tosemite, is a great wonderland, and 

 should be kept as a national playground. 

 In both all wild things should be protected 

 and the scenery kept wholly unmarred. 



I am happy to say that I have been able 

 to set aside in various parts of the country 

 small, well-chosen tracts of ground to serve 

 as sanctuaries and nurseries for wild 

 creatures. 



I had occasion in my message of May 4, 

 1906, to urge the passage of some law 

 putting alcohol, used in the arts, indus- 

 tries, and manufactures, upon the free 

 list; that is, to provide for the withdrawal 

 free of tax of alcohol which is to be de- 

 natured for those purposes. The law of 

 June 7, 1906, and its amendment of Marcb 

 2, 1907, accomplished what was desired iu: 

 that respect, and the use of denaturecS 

 alcohol, as intended, is making a fair de- 

 gree of progress and is entitled to further 

 encouragement and support from the 

 congress. 



The pure-food legislation has already 

 worked a benefit difficult to overestimate. 



The share that the national government 

 should take in the broad work of educa- 

 tion has not received the attention and the 

 care it rightly deserves. The immediate 

 responsibility for the support and im- 

 provement of our educational systems and 

 institutions rests and should always rest 

 with the people of the several states acting 

 through their state and local governments, 

 but the nation has an opportunity in edu- 

 cational work which must not be lost and 

 a duty which should no longer be neglected. 



The National Bureau of Education was 

 established more than forty years ago. Its 

 purpose is to collect and diffuse such in- 

 formation "as shall aid the people of the 

 United States in the establishment and 



