May 12, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



659 



THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL 



SURVEY AND ITS RELATION TO 



THE UNITED STATES COAST 



AND GEODETIC SURVEY i 



The relations of near relatives may be a 

 delicate subject for public discussion. The 

 two organizations of which I have been 

 asked to speak this afternoon possess the 

 same family name as well as certain family 

 characteristics and in consequence are often 

 mistaken one for the other. If one Survey 

 buys a motor truck the other gets the bene- 

 fit of the advertising and the curious public 

 remarks : ' ' We don 't see how the Geological 

 Survey can afford it." 



Yet the relations of the two Surveys have 

 been such for more than a third of a cen- 

 tury, and are such to-day, that I welcome 

 this opportunity for the younger to extend 

 congratulations to the older organization. 

 Were I to review in detail the common his- 

 tory of these two Surveys there are no chap- 

 ters that I should better omit nor incidents 

 that I might need to gloss over in order that 

 my remarks be in keeping with the spirit of 

 this occasion. In short, the hearty con- 

 gratulations that I bring are an expression 

 of true appreciation of what the United 

 States Coast and Geodetic Survey has been 

 to the United States Geological Survey. 



The two bureaus have much in common; 

 the field of endeavor for each is nation- 

 wide; they are scientific in spirit and civil 

 in organization; both are primarily field 

 services, and the product of most of the 

 work of each reaches the public in the form 

 of maps. The similarity in official name 

 also indicates a certain overlapping of 

 function, which under some conditions 

 might cause duplication of work. The fact 

 that at no point in the twilight zone of 

 superimposed jurisdiction has there been 

 any wasted effort is good evidence that both 



1 Centennial exercises of the U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, April 5, 1916. 



these branches of the federal scientific serv- 

 ice have kept in mind the public nature of 

 their work. It is because I realize that in 

 the interrelations of these two bureaus the 

 Geological Survey has been more often the 

 beneficiary that I desire on this occasion to 

 emphasize this gratifying fact that the two 

 Surveys have worked in the cause of Amer- 

 ican science on a coordinated rather than 

 a competitive basis. 



In this connection I should mention the 

 effort made thirty-seven years ago to put 

 on an economic and efficient basis the sur- 

 veying work in the Western States. Under 

 instructions by Congress the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences considered all the work 

 relating to scientific surveys and reported 

 to Congress a plan prepared by a special 

 committee, whose membership included the 

 illustrious names of Marsh, Dana, Rogers, 

 Newberry, Trowbridge, Newcomb and 

 Agassiz. This report, which was adopted 

 by the academy with only one dissenting 

 vote, grouped all surveys, geodetic, topo- 

 graphic, land-parceling and economic, 

 under two distinct heads — surveys of men- 

 suration and surveys of geology. At that 

 time five independent organizations in three 

 different departments were carrying on 

 surveys of mensuration, and the academy 

 recommended that all such work be com- 

 bined under the Coast and Geodetic Survey 

 with the new name Coast and Interior Sur- 

 vey. For the investigation of the natural 

 resources of the public domain and the 

 classification of the public lands a new 

 organization was proposed — the United 

 States Geological Survej^ The functions 

 of these two Surveys and of a third co- 

 ordinate bureau in the Interior Depart- 

 ment, the Land Oifiee, were carefully de- 

 fined and their interrelations fully recog- 

 nized and provided for in the plan pre- 

 sented to Congress. Viewed in the light of 

 thirty-seven years of experience, the Na- 



