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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 879 



Department of Commerce and Labor: 



Bureau of Standards: physical and chemical in- 



Coast and Geodetic Survey: geodesy. 



Bureau of Fisheries: aquatic biology and phys- 

 ics, oceanography, applied ichthyology, util- 

 ization of water products. 



Bureaus of the Census, of Statistics and of 

 Labor: statistics, social and economic subjects. 



Lighthouse Service: civil engineering. 

 Smithsonian Institution and National Museum: 



natural sciences. 

 Several bureaus of the different departments are 

 engaged in technical work involving civil, elec- 

 trical and mechanical engineering. 



The headquarters at Washington serve as a 

 training school in some of the bureaus which 

 have field services. Employees are trained in 

 the central office before being sent out to field 

 stations. In other bureaus employees gather 

 material in the field during the summer 

 months and in the winter return to Washing- 

 ton to prepare the material for study and pub- 

 lication. 



If salaries of scientists and experts in the 

 public service are in general somewhat inade- 

 quate considering the education required and 

 the scholastic nature of the duties involved, 

 there are compensatory advantages which 

 must not be overlooked in comparing a career 

 in the public service with a career in private 

 life. The government is liberal in furnishing 

 adequate equipment in the way of laboratories 

 and libraries to carry on its research work. 

 Notable libraries and laboratories are the 

 Libraries of Congress, the Department of 

 Agriculture, the Bureau of Education and 

 the Surgeon General's Office in the War De- 

 partment; the law libraries of the Supreme 

 Court and the Department of Justice; the 

 laboratories of the Bureau of Standards, the 

 Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of 

 Mines and the Hygienic Laboratory and the 

 laboratory of the Army Medical Museum. 



While men of exceptional attainments in 

 special lines, employed as collaborators and 

 experts, are often given a monetary compen- 

 sation far below what they might receive in 

 private employment, they gain the prestige 

 following their selection by the government 



as recognized authorities, and, also, the op- 

 portunity to follow out, with ample assistance 

 and equipment, various lines of investigation 

 of great ultimate benefit to the people. Young 

 college men, with the capacity for original 

 work, and with a thorough foundation of 

 theoretical knowledge, find encouragement to 

 pursue the practical side of science. 



Industrial organizations demand men trained 

 in applied science. The government service 

 not only offers opportunity for advancement, 

 but is also used by private employers of tech- 

 nical skill as a hunting ground and source of 

 supply. Many opportunities are given experts 

 in the different bureaus to enter university 

 or commercial positions, often at salaries 

 more than double their government compen- 

 sation. In consequence, resignations from the 

 higher offices are comparatively frequent, pro- 

 motions follow, and the resulting vacancy in 

 the lowest grade is filled by appointment 

 through competitive examination. 



Many clubs and associations furnish oppor- 

 tunities for the exchange and diffusion of 

 ideas. The Cosmos Club, the National Geo- 

 graphic Society, and the Washington Academy 

 of Sciences may be mentioned as examples, 

 and many branches of science have their corre- 

 sponding societies. The Carnegie Institution 

 for research, though a private foundation, 

 has given additional importance to Washing- 

 ton as a center of learning. With so large a 

 number of eminent scientists working under 

 favorable conditions and the stimulation de- 

 rived from social intercourse and exchange of 

 thought, an unusual environment and atmos- 

 phere, at once healthful and helpful, are 

 created and sustained. 



The college man in the public service is to- 

 day essential to the maintenance of efficient 

 and economical administration, and he should 

 enter it with as much assurance of an honor- 

 able career as do the British who enter their 

 home or foreign services. The college man's 

 training has been systematic; he has been 

 taught to recognize fundamental principles; 

 he has learned to reason, to coordinate, to 

 concentrate all of his powers upon the sub- 

 ject in question. When he enters the service 



