August 25, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



277 



ment of Science, held in Washington on April 

 22, 1913, shortly after President "Wilson's in- 

 stallation, the following resolution, proposed 

 by Mr. Cattell, was passed: 



Wheeeas, It is eminently desirable that scien- 

 tific men especially skilled in their departments be 

 appointed as heads of the scientific bureaus of the 

 government, therefore, 



Resolved, That a committee of three be ap- 

 pointed to communicate to the President of the 

 United States that it is the opinion of the council 

 of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science that a scientific man skilled in meteorol- 

 ogy should be selected as the Chief of the "Weather 

 Bureau. 



The committee waited on the president who 

 requested the secretary of agriculture to con- 

 sult with the committee of the association. 

 The secretary of agriculture at that time 

 stated that no appointment in the department 

 of agriculture had been made or would be 

 made for political reasons, or even be given to 

 a man who sought the office. The committee 

 of the American Association called the atten- 

 tion of the secretary to the fact that the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences is by law the 

 scientific adviser of the government, and the 

 president, as far as we are aware for the first 

 time since the law was enacted in 1863, asked 

 the advice of the academy on an appointment. 

 A committee of experts of the academy recom- 

 mended three men skilled in meteorology and 

 fitted for the office of chief of the "Weather Bu- 

 reau, and one of these was appointed by the 

 president. In like manner the commissioner 

 of fisheries was appointed from candidates pro- 

 posed by the American Society of Naturalists 

 and the American Zoological Society. In 

 o.ther cases President Wilson has asked and 

 followed the advice of scientific bodies and 

 scientific men, and his record in this respect 

 is certainly better than that of any of his re- 

 cent predecessors. We can only hope that he 

 himself or Mr. Hughes, as the case may be, 

 will still further improve this record in the 

 course of the next four years. — The Scientific 

 Monthly. ^/ 



PRESIDENT WILSON'S SCIENTIFIC APPOINT- 

 MENTS 



Candidate Hughes has publicly charged 

 President Wilson with having made appoint- 



ments to scientific departments of the govern- 

 ment without consideration of the scientific 

 fitness of the appointees and to the detriment 

 of the public service. The charge is so unfair 

 and untrue that it deserves to be repudiated by 

 all who know the facts with regard to any of 

 these appointments, as it has been denounced 

 already by Secretary Redfield and Acting Sec- 

 retary Sweet with respect to the superintend- 

 ent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



The fact is that no president within recent 

 years at least has taken so much pains to ob- 

 tain the advice of scientific societies and of 

 scientific men regarding appointments to sci- 

 entific positions within the government; and 

 none has more faithfully followed that advice, 

 as is shown, for example, in his appointment 

 of the present commissioner of fisheries, the 

 chief of the Weather Bureau, the chief chem- 

 ist of the Department of Agriculture, etc. 

 ■I The contrast between President Wilson's 

 ' attitude in this respect and that of some of his 

 predecessors is very striking. In 1898 the 

 American Society of Naturalists and the 

 American Society of Zoologists appointed a 

 committee to wait upon President McKinley 

 and urge him to appoint as commissioner of 

 fisheries some trained scientific man who 

 should have a practical knowledge of the fish 

 and fisheries of our coasts. President Mc- 

 Kinley told the committee that he was not 

 free to consider their recommendation since 

 the place had already been promised to one 

 who, as it turned out, was not scientifically 

 trained and whose only known qualification 

 was that he was a deserving Republican. 



In 1913 the same societies passed a similar 

 resolution and sent a similar committee to 

 President-elect Wilson upon the same subject. 

 Mr. Wilson thanked the committee for bring- 

 ing the matter to his attention and asked for 

 recommendations of persons for the position. 

 »- The committee considered the matter carefully 

 and after consulting with various members of 

 the societies and with others interested in our 

 fisheries recommended three persons in order 

 of preference and, although it is known that 

 much pressure was brought to bear upon Pres- 



