2 SCIENCE 
American Psychological Association. 
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology. 
Botanical Society of America. 
American Fern Society. 
Society for Horticultural Science. 
American Microscopical Society. 
American Nature-Study Society. 
American Phytopathological Society. 
Sullivant Moss Society. 
American Anthropological Association. 
American Folk-Lore Society. 
American Civie Alliance. 
American Economic Association. 
American Association for Labor Legislation. 
American Sociological Society. 
American Statistical Association. 
American Home Economie Association. 
American Physiological Association. 
Society of American Bacteriologists. 
American Federation of Teachers of the Mathe- 
matical and Natural Sciences. 
Sigma Xi. 
The opening reception to members of the 
association and affiliated and visiting soci- 
eties was given at the new National Museum 
from 8 to 9 p. m. of December 27. At the 
close of the reception, the association held 
its first general meeting in the assembly 
hall of the new National Museum. The 
meeting was called to order by the retiring 
president, Dr. A. A. Michelson, who intro- 
duced the president-elect, Dr. Charles EH. 
Bessey, who in turn introduced the Presi- 
dent of the United States, William H. Taft, 
who delivered the following address of 
welcome: 
I had a Christmas present a day or two ago. 
It was a new Encyclopedia Britannica. On the 
first page of it—I suppose that was the reason 
why I got it—there was a dedication to King 
George V. and William Howard Taft, president 
of the United States. Standing as I do in the 
presence of this live encyclopedia of all knowl- 
edge, I have the same feeling of awe now that I 
had when I saw that name before all the knowl- 
edge of the world. At first I thought somebody 
else ought to speak before me, but I am glad to 
come first, because as a welcomer it is not neces- 
sary for me to advance a single scientifie proposi- 
tion. I am here only as the Mayor of Washington 
to advise you that you have the freedom of the 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 888 
city and that it is a beautiful city which you can 
not stay too long in. Indeed the longer you stay, 
the longer yeu want to stay. 
We have centers of science here. We have the 
Carnegie Foundation for Scientific Research, and 
one of these days I am going to read the things 
that come from that research, when I have plenty 
ef time. Then, we have a number of bureaus that 
I presume would be called bureaus of applied 
science. I don’t refer to the science of govern- 
ment—that is altogether too inexact a science for 
an assembly like this—but I mean there are cer- 
tain bureaus connected with this government that 
I hope present matters of interest to so learned 
and scientific a body as this. There are some of 
them that I would like to get my hands on and 
ehange, but there are limitations upon the power 
of the president of the United States and he can 
not do everything he would like. If I could change 
the Naval Observatory into a bureau, with a scien- 
tifie professor at the head of it, I would do it 
to-morrow, but there are conservative gentlemen 
connected with the coordinate branches of the 
government that prevent. 
Then, we have the Geological Survey and the 
Bureau of Chemistry and the Bureau of Ento- 
mology and the Bureau of Standards. I have no 
doubt there is a much longer list, which if I had 
only committed it to memory, I would give here 
for your studious consideration. But it is enough 
of a congeries of scientific nerves to justify a 
meeting of all the scientific bodies of the country 
here, and I hope that as the government goes on 
and as congress becomes more liberal, those centers 
of scientific research, as many of them ought to 
be, will be improved so as to commend them to 
those of you who have theories as to what they 
ought to be under the auspices and with the neces- 
sary money which the United States can devote, 
if it will, to useful scientifie research. 
There is only one other remark which I wish to 
make to-night. In thinking over what there was 
between this audience and me, of any possible 
common knowledge, it occurred to me it was some 
experience in the exercise of the judicial faculty 
—that is in your lives and in your branches of 
study and action, the search for truth without 
regard to the result you reach. That is what 
makes the administration of justice, what makes 
the work upon the bench so delightful—the abso- 
lute indifference to a result, with the weighing of 
the reasons pro and con and the final solution in 
accordance with eternal justice. The scientific 
man in his search for the truth of nature, in 
