JANUARY 18, 1901.] 
and what ought it to do? If it does not do 
as it ought, why does it not do so? 
Aside from the meager sums which the 
State experiment stations supported by the 
Government allot to animal industry and to 
economic entomology, the zoological activ- 
ities of this Government center at Wash- 
ington. There are three institutions which 
do zoological work for the government. 
The Smithsonian Institution, with its Na- 
tional Museum and National Zoological 
Park branches, is the only one of the three 
which cares for pure zoological science. 
The U. S. Department of Agriculture, with 
its Bureau of Animal Industry, its Biolog- 
ical Survey, and its entomological service, 
is wholly economic in the aims of its 
zoological scientific work. The third of 
these institutions, the U. S. Commission of 
Fish and Fisheries, was also established by 
‘the Government for a purely economic pur- 
pose. 
It is not my intention to dwell at any 
length upon the relative merits of economic 
and pure scientific work. I have a strong 
conviction that humanity gains far more 
from scientific work undertaken with an 
economic aim than from the labors of the 
other class of scientific men, and I believe 
it to be a most unfortunate condition of af- 
fairs that hundreds of the men, best fitted 
by brains and training to attack the many 
economic problems which are fairly crying 
for solution, are delving away in their 
search for truths and principles which 
when found have only a remote bearing, if 
any at all, upon the sum total of human 
happiness. I was once filled with the re- 
sounding majesty of the phrase ‘science for 
science’s sake,’ but now, while I admit the 
grandeur of the idea, I have come to par- 
allel it and its opposite in my mind with 
the contrast between abstract and practical 
Christianity—both beautiful, but one for 
gods and the other for men. 
Now what is Government doing for these 
SCIENCE 
89 
three scientific institutions at Washington ? 
The Smithsonian Institution receives each 
year $246,540, for the National Museum, 
and $75,000, for the National Zoological 
Park. The National Museum employs 33 
scientific men, and the National Zoological 
Park, 2. All are pitifully underpaid. The 
amounts spent on purchase of collections 
have been extremely small. Neither the 
Museum nor the Park has a responsible 
head in the proper sense of the term. The 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 
supervises the work of both branches and 
alone asks Congress for their appropriations. 
The personnel of the scientific force of the 
Museum is admirable in quality but ab- 
surdly insufficient in quantity. Not a sci- 
entific man on the force has the proper fa- 
cilities for work. ‘The collections are large 
but they are one-sided and there is little 
money to supply the deficiency. Under- 
paid, with few facilities, grievously dis- 
satisfied with conditions, nothing but the 
rare enthusiasm which scientific work in- 
spires keeps these able men at their labors. 
The National Museum needs a new building 
planned for alltime tocome. It needs now 
an annual appropriation of double the pres- 
entsize. Assoon as the beginning of anew 
building is made it will need an appropria- 
tion of ten timesits present size. Think of 
what the words United States National Mu- 
seum should mean and then think how the 
present institution fits the name! Govern- 
ment has not given a proper amount of 
money and Government shows faint signs 
of ever giving it. Why? Because Congress 
has not been made to see the importance of 
the subject; because Congress has not been 
asked for the money with sufficient force 
and with sufficient argument. The Board 
of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 
might make this request and back it with 
all the weight of the illustrious names of 
the men who compose that body. The 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 
