546 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIIL, No 201 



short time the disapproval of the majority of 

 the scientific public would make itself felt in 

 congress. It is true that the vis inertiae of an 

 established bureau is very great. The heads of 

 departments change with each new administra- 

 tion, but the heads of bureaus remain ; and if 

 an unfit man succeeds in obtaining one of these 

 positions, it is a matter of great difficulty to dis- 

 place him ; but it seems to me to be wiser to 

 direct the main effort to getting right men in 

 right places rather than to attempt to elaborate a 

 system which shall give good results with inferior 

 men as the executive agents, which attempt is a 

 waste of energy. 



You are all familiar with the results of the 

 inquiry which has been made by a congressional 

 committee into the organization and work of cer- 

 tain bureaus which are especially connected with 

 scientific interests, and with the different opin- 

 ions which this inquiry has brought out from sci- 

 entific men. I think that the conclusion of the 

 majority of the committee — that the work is, on 

 the whole, being well done, and that the people 

 are getting the worth of their money — is gener- 

 ally assented to. True, some mistakes have been 

 made, some force has been wasted, some officials 

 have not given satisfaction ; but is it probable 

 that any other system would give so much better 

 results that it is wise to run the risks of change? 



This question brings us to the only definite 

 proposition which has been made in this direc- 

 tion, namely, the proposed department of science, 

 to which all the bureaus whose work is mainly 

 scientific, such as the coast survey, the geological 

 survey, the signal service, the naval observatory, 

 etc., shall he transferred. 



The arguments in favor of this are familiar to 

 you, and, as regards one or two of the bureaus, it 

 is probable that the proposed change would effect 

 an improvement ; but as to the desirability of 

 centralization and consolidation of scientific in- 

 terests and sc'entific work into one department 

 under a single head, I confess that I have serious 

 doubts. 



One of the strongest arguments in favor of such 

 consolidation that I have seen is the address of 

 the late president of the Chemical society of 

 Washington, Professor Clarke, ' On the relations 

 of the government to chemistry,' delivered about 

 a year ago. Professor Clarke advises the creation 

 of a large, completely equipped laboratory, 

 planned by chemists and managed by chemists, 

 in which all the chemical researches required by 

 any department of the government shall be made, 

 and the abandonment of individual laboratories 

 in the several bureaus on the ground that these 

 last are small, imi)erfectly equipped, and not 



properly specialized ; that eacli chemist in them 

 has too broad a range of duty and receives too 

 small a salary to command the best professional 

 ability. He would have a national laboratory, in 

 which one specialist shall deal only with metals, 

 another with food-products, a third with drugs, 

 etc., while over the whole, directing and corre- 

 lating their work, shall preside the ideal chemist, 

 the all-round man, recognized as the leader of the 

 chemists of the United States. And so should 

 the country get better and cheaper results. It is 

 an enticing plan, and one wliich might be ex- 

 tended to many other fields of work. Granting 

 the premises that we shall have the best possible 

 equipment, Avith the best possible man at the 

 head of it, and a sufficient corps of trained spe- 

 cialists, each of whom will contentedly do his own 

 work as directed and be satisfied, so that there 

 shall be no jealousies, or strikes, or boycotting, 

 and we have made a long stride toward Utopia. 

 But before we centralize in this way we must set- 

 tle the question of classification. Just as in ar- 

 ranging a large library there are many books- 

 which belong in several different sections, so it is 

 in applied science. Is it certain that the exam- 

 ination of food-products or of drugs should be 

 made under the direction of the national chemist 

 rather than under that of the departments vvhicli 

 are most interested in the composition and quality 

 of these articles? This does not seem to me to be 

 a self-evident proposition by any means. The 

 opinion of a scientific man as to whether the 

 government should or should not undei'take to 

 carry out any particular branch of scientific re- 

 search and publish the results, whether it should 

 attempt to do such work through officers of the 

 army and navy, or more or less exclusively 

 through persons specially employed for the purpose, 

 whether the scientific work shall be done under 

 the direction of those who wish to use, and care 

 only for, the practical results, or whether the sci- 

 entific man shall himself be the administrative 

 head and direct the manner in which his results 

 shall be applied, — the opinion of a scientific man 

 on such points, I say, will differ according to the 

 part he expects or desires to take in the work, ac- 

 cording to the nature of the work, according to 

 whether he is an army or navy officer or not, ac- 

 cording to whether he takes more pleasure in sci- 

 entific investigations than in administrative prob- 

 lems, and so forth. 



It is necessary, therefore, to apply a correction 

 for personal equation to each individual set of 

 opinions before its true weight and value can he 

 estimated, and, unfortunately, no general fornuila 

 for this purpose has yet been worked out. 



I can only indicate my own opinions, which are 



