FEBRUARY 8, 1901.] 
tablishment, or the astronomical director, with any 
instructions or suggestions as to what the Observatory 
should do. 
Iam willing that this assistant spectroscopist shall 
be appointed and that he shall have the salary pro- 
posed to be paid under this proposed act, at the 
present time, because it seems that everything which 
is suggested here by a naval officer who is connected 
with the Observatory goes without any regulations of 
law atall. There is no law to regulate the National 
Observatory. , 
Mr. Chandler said : 
When the naval appropriation bill comes up I hope 
the Senator will aid myself and the committee in 
securing some appropriate legislation to improve the 
management of the Observatory ; but it is not proposed 
by that bill to take the Observatory wholly away from 
naval control. It is proposed to establish a perma- 
nent board of visitors, on which shall be some of the 
most eminent astronomers, and also to make the 
astronomical corps a corps of civil officers, instead of 
a corps of life officers in the Navy. There are other 
incidental improvements of administration which are 
recommended. I hope there will be some legislation 
on the subject. 
There is not, I will add, perfect satisfaction among 
the astronomers of the country with the work of the 
National Observatory ; and it was that dissatisfaction 
which led to the appointment of this board of visitors. 
The subject is worthy of the very careful consider- 
ation of the Senate and of Congress. 
Mr. Allison said in reply to Mr. Morgan : 
I agree with the Senator that it may be necessary 
to reorganize the Naval Observatory. That has been 
in contemplation for some years. 
On January 25th the same question was 
raised in the House, sitting as Committee of 
the Whole in connection with an item in the 
naval appropriation bill, appropriating $18,000 
for the building of three houses for the astron- 
omersof theobservatory. Mr. Newlands said : 
I would like to ask the gentleman from Illinois 
whether he has any views in regard to the taking of 
this observatory out of the control of the Navy De- 
partment? My information is that it is really of no 
scientific value to the country or to the world, and 
that the observatory would be much better adminis- 
tered by some other department of the Government, 
with really scientific men at its head, instead of naval 
officers detached for duty there. 
Mr. Cannon. The gentleman asks me a questicn 
of policy that is not necessarily connected with the 
building of these houses. I would say to my friend 
that no doubt my friend from West Virginia would 
SCIENCE. 235 
not agree with me. I do not helieve, to answer his 
question, that the Astronomical Observatory ought to 
be under the control of the Navy or the Army or any 
other department in Washington. I think that we 
should have better administration and more economic 
administration if we were rid of that expensive house 
out there [the superintendent’s house] under a direc- 
tion that does not direct in scientific lines. 
Mr. Newlands. I wish to state to the gentlemen 
that I understand that the naval observatory in Eng- 
land is of great scientific value, not only to that 
country but to the world, for the reason that the men 
in charge of the observatory are trained scientific as- 
tronomers and not naval officers. Now, I would call 
his attention to that and ask him whether it is not 
advisable that this entire department of the Govern- 
ment be placed under scientific control, with a view 
to the advance of scientific information. 
Mr. Cannon. I will say to my friend now, if he 
will not call on me for names, because I do not like 
to give these in a city of official direction—I will say 
to him that men who have been in the service, scien- 
tific men, astronomers of this Nayal Observatory, and 
men I apprehend that are in its service now, have. 
protested to me time and time and time again that it 
was not so efficient as it ought to be ; that it was un- 
der a direction that was not in harmony, but that with 
less expense more efficiency could be had. 
Subsequently Mr. Dayton described in some 
detail the work of the Board of Visitors to the 
Observatory of which he was a member. He 
said : 
We went over, as far as was possible, as thoroughly 
as possible, the condition of the Naval Observatory and 
its management and its cost, and the result of our in- 
vestigation is embodied in the report which [ hold in 
my hand. We took occasion to investigate its history 
from start to finish and its management from start to 
finish. In addition to that, in order that there might 
be full and complete information presented to Con- 
gress and the country, certain questions set forth in 
this report were sent to almost every astronomer of 
reputation in the country. 
Among those questions was one whether or not this 
_ Observatory should be transferred from the Navy De- 
partment to some other department, whether its effi- 
ciency would be promoted by such transfer, and 
whether, if such transfer was made, with what De- 
partment this Observatory should be connected. The 
answer to these questions presented an anomalous 
state of affairs. There was an absolute division of 
opinion that was nearly equal. For instance, my 
recollection is that 19 of the prominent astronomers 
suggested thought it ought to be disconnected from 
