154 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 866 



$20 for part of the year were wasting public 

 funds. Any one of these three men, if he 

 had been willing to put his knowledge of 

 chemistry at the service of an adulterator of 

 food or an evader of customs, could have 

 made a great deal more money and had a 

 much easier time of it. 



It is not merely a pecuniary sacrifice 

 which must be made by men of exceptional 

 ability and proficiency when they enter any 

 branch of government employ. A greater 

 deterrent is the fact that they find that they 

 are not free to work in their own way but 

 have to submit to the detailed dictation of a 

 lot of clerks and lawyers. This is particu- 

 larly the case with the scientific departments. 

 The scientific temperament is in eternal con- 

 flict with the legal temperament. , The one 

 cares only for results; the other insists upon 

 methods. The former is striving for some- 

 thing new; the later sticks to precedents. 

 Consequently the scientific men in government 

 employ are apt to be in a chronic state of irri- 

 tation unless they are of the conventional 

 routine type of mind, that is to say the un- 

 scientific type of mind. In the case of a high 

 spirited and original genius this irritation 

 sometimes rises finally to the pitch of exas- 

 peration and he goes off on a tangent, send- 

 ing in a farewell letter to " the department " 

 telling them just what he thinks of them for 

 refusing to pay for that tin cup which he 

 bought without the proper requisition or for 

 sending back his last report because only one 

 color of ink was used on it. Men of calmer 

 temper will get along somehow rather than 

 give up work they are interested in, paying 

 for the things that are necessary but not al- 

 lowed, out of their own pockets, or collecting 

 money on the side from some patron of sci- 

 ence, and resorting to various evasions and 

 misclassifications to get within the letter of 

 the law. Probably the strict and literal en- 

 forcement of all the regulations in any de- 

 partment would stop its work. We have ex- 

 perimental evidence in support of this sup- 

 position, for in France and Italy it has been 

 tried in the government railroad and postal 

 service, v/here the employees instead of strik- 



ing decided to obey the rules, all of the rules, 

 all of the time. The result proved that obedi- 

 ence was better than sacrifice of wages be- 

 cause it was more effective in tying up the 

 traffic. 



The United States government has been 

 remarkably liberal in its appropriations for 

 scientific purposes, both theoretical and prac- 

 tical, but the results have not always been 

 commensurate with the expenditure, partly 

 because of the conditions under which the 

 work had to be performed. By a process of 

 natural selection the men of greatest initia- 

 tive and originality tend to be eliminated out 

 of the system. This is why the phrase 

 " Washington science " is so commonly used 

 in a derogatory sense. 



Now the Bureau of Chemistry, under 

 Harvey W. Wiley, for the past twenty-eight 

 years has succeeded in keeping out of the ruts. 

 It has set a fast pace for the state agricul- 

 tural experiment stations. It has made many 

 original contributions to science. It has 

 initiated many valuable reforms in legisla- 

 tion and in agricultural practise. Dr. Wiley 

 has a good temper. He laughs and grows fat 

 on worries and opposition that would drive 

 some men mad. He has been able to live in 

 a bureaucratic atmosphere without losing his 

 scientific spirit, or, what is more remarkable, 

 his zeal for reform. — The Independent. 



DOCTOR WILEY 

 (With apologies to Eudyard Kipling) 

 "What makes the Potted Ham so green?" said 



Files-on-Parade. 

 " It 's f eelin ' fresher than it is, ' ' the Color Ser- 

 geant said. 

 "What makes the ranks so white, so white?" 



said Files-on-Parade. 

 ' ' They 're dreadin ' what they 've got to eat, ' ' the 

 Color Sergeant said. 

 ' ' For, they 're bouncin ' Doctor Wiley, you can 

 hear the Microbes cheer, 

 And the Germs is all a-singin' 'Wiley's goin' 



away from here, 

 And we're comin' back far stronger than 



we've been for many a year, 

 For they're bouncin' Doctor Wiley in the 

 mornin'. ' " 



