Juny 12, 1918] 
lic: Here is a man anxious to improve the 
condition of his fellows; listen to what he 
has to say. 
Recent world events make it evident that 
it is going to become more and more neces- 
sary to the life of the nation to conserve 
all its natural resources, and to coordinate 
all the energies of the state so that the 
whole may become available for any con- 
tingency that can be foreseen, and that all 
parts work together with the least possible 
friction, and with highest efficiency in re- 
sults. 
For the proper realization of the develop- 
ment of an ideal life for our nation we must 
be taught by example. Do we not find in 
the life and character of this great Ameri- 
can, in whose honor we are met to-day, a 
model and a type? He was thoroughly 
equipped, both by natural gifts and by pa- 
tient industry, for the battle of life as it had 
to be fought out; and he devoted his great 
powers unselfishly and ungrudgingly to the 
service of the public. His was the pre- 
paredness of mind and heart that must be 
the ruling traits of the American of the fu- 
ture; of mind that will lead to the success- 
ful solution of such national and interna- 
tional problems as arise, without loss of 
dignity or undue waste of energy; of heart, 
that even the gates of ambition and selfish- 
ness can not prevail against it. 
Professor Baird, and those members of 
the House and Senate who learned to 
understand his sterling worth, together 
taught the world a great economic lesson. 
May we not express the hope that their ex- 
ample will be followed in these times and 
henceforth; that our legislators get the in- 
spiration and information that is to de- 
termine legislation from those who know, 
rather than from those who do not know, 
even though they may be able to adorn 
their ignorance with the charms of elo- 
quence that move the multitude. 
SCIENCE 33 
On the nineteenth of August, 1887, amid 
surroundings which were in large part the 
realization of his own thought and activity, 
in the residence building of the United 
States Fish Commission, at Woods Hole, 
Massachusetts, Professor Baird, man of sci- 
ence and servant of the public, died. 
I remember the day and the hour. It was 
afternoon, and the tide was low. I recall a 
picture of a red sun hanging over Long 
Neck? and reflected in the still waters of 
Great Harbor, of sodden masses of sea- 
weed on the dripping piles and on the 
bowlder-strewn shore; and there rises again 
the thought that kept recurring then, that 
the sea is very ancient, that it ebbed and 
flowed before man appeared on the planet, 
and will ebb and flow after he and his 
works have disappeared; and a singular, 
indefinite impression, as if something had 
passed that was, in some fashion, great, and 
mysterious, and ancient, like the sea itself. 
And now, more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury after his death, we who knew him, 
and were in greater or less degree privil- 
eged to be associated with him, are met 
here to give visible expression to the rev- 
erent esteem in which we hold in memory 
the image of this pure and lofty character, 
and to our high appreciation of his life and 
labors for the public good. 
Mr. Secretary: It is no small honor that 
you and I share to-day in having our lives 
for a brief moment fall under the shadow 
of the name of one of our country’s great- 
est men. 
My honor it is to present to the Bureau 
of Fisheries of the Department of Com- 
merce, of which you are the official head, 
as the gift of his associates and followers, 
and in their behalf, this tablet to the mem- 
ory of the founder and organizer of the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries, and first 
4 Now known as Penzance. 
