360 



SCIEINCJE. 



[Vol. VIII. , No. 194 



ment there could be but one apology. The 

 Presirlent and his secretary of the treasury were 

 responsible to the public for the conduct of the 

 survey ; and it was theii" duty to take every 

 measure for discovering any u-regularities which 

 might exist in its administration. A searcliing 

 inquiry into the past disbursements of the officers 

 and employees was eminently proper under the 

 existing circumstances. Mr. Thorn, as head of 

 the investigating commission, was well qualified 

 for the inquiry ; and we may charitably suppose 

 it was on this account, and this alone, that he 

 was made superintendent. Such being the case, 

 the coiirse prescribed by every principle of public 

 justice and governmental policy was quite clear. 

 An old and reputable branch of the public service 

 was on trial before the President, for grave short- 

 comings in the conduct and character of its em- 

 ployees. Sound policy required that it and they 

 should be conceded that same right to a spef>dy 

 trial and a public verdict which an individual 

 enjoys when accused of crime. For more than a 

 year a body of men of high jirofessional attain- 

 ments and unstained reputation have felt them- 

 selves wounded by imputations on the service to 

 which they belong, of which they once were 

 proud, and of which they sometimes hope to be 

 proud in the future. After waiting so long, they 

 cannot but feel it a public wrong that the head of 

 the government takes no measures and announces 

 no conclusions which will indicate Ms verdict 

 upon their official characters. 



In this connection let us think kindly of Mr. 

 Thorn. No one questions the honesty of his in- 

 tentions or the purity of his motives. Circum- 

 stances not of his own making ii^iposed upon him 

 a disagreeable duty, in the performance of which 

 he has spent more than a year. He has done as 

 well as possibly could be expected of a man with- 

 out administrative experience, placed in charge of 

 a great public work in the capacity of prosecuting 

 attorney. Gradually compelled by the force of 

 circumstances to conduct the office in accordance 

 with long-established custom, and to trust the 

 men whom his predecessors have trusted, he now 

 sees the very accusers of former administrations, 

 who put him into power, turning against him, 

 and even going so far as to file charges of mal- 

 feasance in office with the public prosecutor of the 

 District of Columbia. 



In the Washington Post of Monday last we find 

 a statement by him so conclusive of the whole ques- 

 tion, that we should doubt its authenticity did it 



not bear every mark of being given in his own 

 words. At the conclusion of a long reply to the 

 charges we have mentioned, he alludes as follows 

 to the testimony of last year, on which the sur- 

 vey was condemned, and Mr. Hilgard compelled 

 to resign : — 



" The testimony, which the present proceeding 

 is said to be intended to revive, has been out of 

 my custody and in that of the department much 

 more than a year. It is mainly ex parte affidavits, 

 some true, some false, some mistaken, some since 

 retracted, and more or less wild gossip since dis- 

 proved. The publication of such material against 

 people who were not confronted with the wit- 

 nesses, and did not cross-examine them nor appear 

 by counsel, and the spreading of it before the 

 public, who can kncv nothing of the credibility 

 or motives of any of the witnesses, or of the 

 l^robable value of their testimony, would be sim- 

 ply an indiscriminate assassination of character." 



Such an admission is most creditable to him, 

 and must gratify every lover of purity in the pub- 

 lic service. It must require a rare endowment of 

 moral courage and respect for truth and justice 

 to move one to speak thus of testimony which was 

 collected by himself, and which formed the only 

 basis for his appointment to one of the most im- 

 portant offices in the gift of the President. If we 

 accept Mr. Thorn's statement, we shall see why 

 the present condition of the survey tends to de- 

 moralization. It is a public establishment, in the 

 prosecution of which the esprit de corps of its 

 members is as important a factor as it is in the 

 army or the navy. But the revival of the old 

 pride in the service is impossible under the con- 

 ditions which now prevail. The survey is in 

 danger of losing the services of its best men, whose 

 incentive to work is not salary, but professional 

 pride in the honorable character and public utility 

 of the work they are doing. That vacancies can 

 be filled by men of equal promise under the con- 

 ditions which now jDrevail, no one acquainted 

 with the case can for a moment suppose. There 

 will, of course, be a crowd of applicants for every 

 vacancy, but the number really fitted for the 

 places will be small, and will be sure to be passed 

 over by any one but an expert in the selection of 

 men for such a service. A year or two more such 

 as the last wiU leave nothing worth preserving of 

 an organization which was once the pride of 

 American applied science, and a connection with 

 which was a letter of introduction to similar or- 

 ganizations the world over. 



