JANUARY 5, 1912] 
any occasion for appealing to a member of 
the legislative branch of the government 
concerning business transactions in the 
executive departments. 
(6) If the instruments or materials are 
delivered from time to time; tests are nec- 
essary in order to see that the deliveries 
are in accordance with the samples or the 
specifications. If deliveries are accepted 
without tests or inspection, or with inspec- 
tion only, the door is opened for deception 
and fraud; honest dealers or manufac- 
turers are at a disadvantage in competi- 
tion with unscrupulous ones in dealing 
with the government; and it may result 
under such circumstances that the most 
reliable manufacturers will refrain from 
bidding on government business, leaving 
those who are willing to misrepresent their 
products to compete with one another for 
the government patronage. The govern- 
ment then becomes a party to fraudulent 
transactions, and to a greater or less extent 
tends to demoralize business. On the 
other hand, if careful inspections and tests 
are regularly made, and acceptances are 
conditioned on meeting the specifications, 
manufacturers often thereby become bet- 
ter acquainted with the properties of their 
own products, honesty and uprightness in 
business are encouraged, a standard of 
quality is set for the given instrument or 
material which helps other purchasers be- 
sides the government, and the whole in- 
dustry may be greatly benefited. 
(7) If the reports of such tests are 
communicated to the manufacturers, as 
they generally are, defects in the product 
are perhaps sooner discovered and sooner 
remedied, and if the government invites 
the cooperation of the manufacturers 
when undertaking tests of types of instru- 
ments or of materials, the tests are likely 
to be fairly conducted and the results rep- 
resentative. 
SCIENCE 19 
(8) In these days of commercial com- 
binations and gentlemen’s agreements as 
to prices, it sometimes happens that the 
government can not secure competition in 
price, but finds that the bids from differ- 
ent manufacturers are identical in price. 
Here again, testing the product solves an 
otherwise serious difficulty, for it is gener- 
ally possible even in this case to secure 
real competition as to quality, and this is 
quite as important as competition in price. 
It is thus seen that there are many rea- 
sons for testing the thousands of kinds of 
instruments, machines and materials pur- 
chased by the government, and for doing 
this, in large measure at least, in a well- 
equipped institution set apart for that pur- 
pose. The Bureau of Standards has done 
considerable work of this kind, but the 
government’s purchases are so varied and 
so vast, and so many requests for tests 
came from states, municipalities, and the 
public, that the work involved is very great, 
and only a fraction of the work is done 
which could be done with profit. Whether 
the bureau shall grow in the future as fast 
as the demands upon it for testing and in- 
vestigation increase is uncertain. But if 
it does only a part of the work waiting to 
be done, and does that part well, it will 
amply justify its existence, and in so do- 
ing save the government and benefit the 
industries far more than the cost of its 
maintenance. 
Epwarp B. Rosa 
BUREAU OF STANDARDS 
PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIAL FELLOWSHIPS 
In the issue of Scrence for Friday, May 7, 
1909, I presented the main outlines and con- 
temporary status of a scheme of industrial 
fellowships initiated by me in an article in 
the North American Review for May, 1907. 
Since this statement I have made no report to 
this journal. 
I now present the establishment of a new 
