386 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Yol. XLIV. No. 1133 



election, he was unable to explain certain 

 charged irregularities and his constituents de- 

 clined to return him to congress. 



Another flagrant violation of the principles 

 of the civil service and a total disregard of fit- 

 ness was the appointment of one H. O. Smith, 

 of Palestine, Illinois, as chief Alaska salmon 

 agent. This appointment was made without 

 consulting the commissioner of fisheries or the 

 chief of the Alaska fisheries service, and after 

 the secretary of commerce had assured the 

 commissioner of fisheries that he would pro- 

 mote to the position the assistant Alaska sal- 

 mon agent, Mr. Ward T. Bower, a thoroughly 

 competent and experienced man. H. 0. 

 Smith openly claimed that his appointment 

 was made at the instance of Senator James 

 Hamilton Lewis, of Illinois. 



The duties of the Alaska salmon agent, like 

 those of a deputy commissioner of fisheries, 

 are highly technical, and require special 

 knowledge and experience of the fisheries. 

 Neither Mr. Jones nor Mr. Smith possessed 

 even elementary knowledge of fishes or fisher- 

 ies; it was apparent that neither could tell a 

 salmon from a sucker. Each of them made at 

 least one tour of inspection of the Alaska 

 fisheries, bringing discredit upon the bureau 

 wherever they went, so lacking were they in 

 knowledge or appreciation of the problems of 

 the fisheries. The voluminous and profusely 

 illustrated report by the deputy commissioner 

 will probably never be excelled in the number 

 of inaccuracies, absurd statements, fairy stor- 

 ies and erroneous conclusions it contains. 



One other case may be mentioned, one with 

 which the National Academy of Sciences is 

 concerned. In the spring of 1914 the admin- 

 istration decided to send a special commission 

 of zoologists to the seal islands of Alaska. 

 The secretary of commerce, when a member 

 of congress, had voted for a bill which pro- 

 hibits all commercial killing of fur seals for 

 five years in spite of the fact that every zool- 

 ogist in America, England, Eussia and Japan 

 who had studied our fur-seal herd advised 

 against such a course. 



Having taken a position favoring the sus- 

 pension of commercial killing the secretary 



might very properly decline to reverse his 

 opinion until he had secured further informa- 

 tion. The administration thought this infor- 

 mation could be secured by sending a special 

 commission to the islands. To assist in select- 

 ing the members of the commission the presi- 

 dent asked the National Academy of Sciences, 

 the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 

 and the secretary of agriculture each to nomi- 

 nate one member of the commission. This 

 was done. The National Academy of Sciences 

 nominated a very able and distinguished zool- 

 ogist, Dr. George H. Parker, of Harvard Uni- 

 versity. The commission went to the seal is- 

 lands in the summer of 1914, made a study of 

 the seal herd and, upon their return to Wash- 

 ington, submitted a very comprehensive re- 

 port, in which, evidently to the surprise of the 

 secretary of commerce, every important thing 

 for which Clark, Jordan, Evermann, Stej- 

 neger, Lucas, Osborn, Townsend, Merriam, 

 Lembkey and others familiar with fur-seal 

 matters had contended, was sustained. 



The report contained a number of recom- 

 mendations, the most important of which was 

 the immediate repeal of the law which pro- 

 hibits commercial killing of seals, and for 

 which Mr. Eedfield had voted and which he 

 had said, as late as October 13, 1913, was " a 

 sound and wise one." 



Dr. Parker and his associates submitted 

 their report to the commissioner of fisheries 

 on January 23, 1915, by whom it was promptly 

 transmitted to Secretary Eedfield on January 

 25. Although the report contained recom- 

 mendations of vital importance to the fur-seal 

 herd, which if acted upon promptly would save 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars to the 

 government as well as save the seal herd from 

 irreparable injury, Mr. Eedfield pigeonholed 

 the report for more than three weeks and did 

 not transmit it to congress until February 17, 

 only a few days before congress adjourned. 

 And, very strangely, and to the great disap- 

 pointment of the commission, Mr. Eedfield 

 studiously refrained from calling attention to 

 any of the recommendations of the commis- 

 sion; nor did he make any recommendation 

 himself that congress should take any action 



