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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1130 



■war is a little like blaming astronomy for noc- 

 turnal crime. It is better to keep tbe bellicose 

 applications of science as its incidental prod- 

 ucts rather than the chief ones they would be- 

 come under those elements of human nature 

 that must also be " reckoned with " in the 

 end. 



P. Lyman Wells 

 McLean Hospital, 

 Waverley, Mass. 



QUOTATIONS 



SCIENTIFIC APPOINTMENTS UNDER THE 

 GOVERNMENT 



A scientific journal must avoid the discus- 

 sion of party politics, but it is legitimate to 

 point out that the two leading parties have 

 adopted platforms which, as far as their prin- 

 ciples go, might almost be interchanged, and 

 have nominated candidates who have much in 

 common, both of them being lawyers, univer- 

 sity professors and sons of clergymen. In 

 view of these circumstances it is of interest to 

 those concerned with science that Mr. Hughes 

 in his first campaign speeches should select as 

 one of his two leading issues the appointments 

 by President Wilson to scientific offices under 

 the government. This would not have been a 

 vital political issue a few years ago, and it is 

 certainly gratifying that it should now have 

 become so, more especially as both parties and 

 both candidates profess the same desirable 

 principles and only dispute about the extent 

 to which they have been maintained. 



In opening his campaign at Detroit, Mr. 

 Hughes charged the administration with hav- 

 ing displaced the scientific heads of the census 

 and of the coast and geodetic survey with men 

 not having scientific qualifications. The word 

 " displaced " is ambiguous and was perhaps in- 

 tended to be so, and the reply of the secretary 

 of commerce that both men had " voluntarily 

 retired " is also, and it may be purposely, am- 

 biguous. Men familiar with university affairs, 

 like the two candidates for the presidency, 

 know that professors sometimes have their 

 resignations presented to them. It is allow- 

 able to say either that Dr. Wilson displaced 

 Dr. Patten as president of Princeton Univer- 

 sity or that Dr. Patten resigned and was suc- 



ceeded by Dr. Wilson. As a matter of fact, Dr. 

 Durand's resignation as director of the census 

 was forced, and Dr. Tittman, who was sixty- 

 five years old and in indifferent health, re- 

 signed voluntarily from the Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey. 



The vulnerable point in the action of the 

 administration is the appointment of their 

 successors. Mr. William J. Harris, appointed 

 director of the census, was chairman of the 

 democratic state committee of Georgia and the 

 appointment appears to have been for political 

 reasons, as has unfortunately so often hap- 

 pened in the bureau of the census, where the 

 extension of civil service rules has been least 

 adequate. E. Lester Jones, when appointed 

 superintendent of the coast and geodetic sur- 

 vey to succeed Dr. Tittman, was deputy com- 

 missioner of fisheries. His appointment to 

 that office and his promotion to the head of 

 the survey in the same department appear to 

 have been personal rather than political. He 

 has proved to be an efficient executive, but his 

 appointment to both offices certainly violated 

 the principle that these positions should be 

 held by experts. 



It can not, however, be denied that there are 

 two sides to this question. Under modern 

 conditions a distinguished man of science is 

 likely to be a good executive, but the number 

 of scientific men available for a position of 

 this character is limited, and it is by no means 

 certain that it is desirable to divert the skilled 

 expert from his research work to an exec- 

 utive position. Another solution of the prob- 

 lem would be to make the heads of bureaus 

 purely administrative officers, to be filled by 

 men used to administrative work, but for the 

 scientific policy of the bureau to be decided by 

 a committee of its scientific experts and for 

 the more eminent of these to receive salaries 

 not smaller than that of the executive head. 



Mr. Hughes has not pointed out, as an im- 

 partial judge might have done, that the two 

 scientific appointments mentioned are the only 

 ones in which the president is open to criti- 

 cism, or that he is the first president who has 

 officially asked the advice of scientific men on 

 such points. At the meeting of the council of 

 the American Association for the Advance- 



