Janhaky 15, 1897.] 



SCmNGE. 



75 



forces aud the results of the people's work 

 along all lines of endeavor, form the basis 

 of all economic science, and would be 

 needed, therefore, in connection with the 

 work of the bureaus above mentioned. 

 Many of them would have to assist in col- 

 lecting these data. There must, therefore, 

 be the most intimate cooperation between 

 the agencies of the government for the 

 exploitation of resources and the promotion 

 of industries, and the census bureau which 

 measures the one and counts the results of 

 the other. 



The list appended to this paper includes 

 the chief government scientific agencies 

 having these, or similar objects, as distin- 

 guished from the purelj' executive agencies 

 of the government. It shows that the 

 United States government now employs 

 6,22.5 persons in this scientific and economic 

 work, not including the census, and expends 

 for it annually nearly eight million dollars. 



A glance at this magnificent array of 

 forces is all that is necessary to impress 

 one, not merely with the grand initiative of 

 the American people which has called them 

 forth, but with their sadly divided and 

 scattered condition ; for the appended list 

 also shows that our government is now 

 supporting twenty-eight separate scientific 

 bureaus, surveys, divisions or investiga- 

 tions, distributed among six different de- 

 partments, not including fifty-four agricul- 

 tural experiment stations and many other 

 outlying agencies. Science is conducting 

 in America a grand campaign for the ad- 

 vancement of civilization, but its forces are 

 divided into so many camps that it does 

 not win half the victories it should. What 

 we want is an organized army, with a gen- 

 eral staff and a commander-in-chief. 



DTJPLICATION OF WORK. 



Scattered, as our scientific agencies are, 

 through all the departments, organized un- 

 der broad and often very indefinite laws, 



supervised and directed, when they receive 

 any attention at all, by different Secretaries, 

 usuallj' not scientific men and always over- 

 run with other work, there is ample oppor- 

 tunity for confusion and duplication of 

 work, and consequent waste of time and 

 money. A few illustrations will show how 

 this works. 



The government has three separate and 

 distinct agencies for measuring the land of 

 the country : namely, the General Land 

 Ofiice and the Geological Survey, both in 

 the Interior Department, and the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, in the Treasury De- 

 partment. In addition to these, the En- 

 gineer Corps of the Army makes military, 

 boundary and geographic explorations and 

 surveys. 



There are four hydrographic oflices in as 

 many departments, viz, the Hydrographic 

 Office of the Navy, a similar ofiice in the 

 Coast Survey of the Treasury Department, 

 the Division of Hydrography in the Geo- 

 logical Survey (Interior Department), 

 which measures the rivers of the arid re- 

 gions, and the AVeather Bureau, which 

 measures rivers and studies lake currents. 

 These agencies are supposed to have dif- 

 ferent fields of labor, but all are liable to 

 meet in the navigable rivers of the country. 



In addition, the Fish Commission meas- 

 ures the waters of fishing grounds and 

 rivers, the Engineer Corps of the Army 

 measures the Mississippi River, the lakes 

 and harbors. Four or five of these agen- 

 cies have actually been engaged in making 

 measurements and studies in the navigable 

 rivers and the Great Lakes within the last 

 few years. 



The Coast Survey, the Naval Observatory 

 and the Weather Bureau have all been en- 

 gaged in recent years in studying the mag- 

 netism of the earth. 



The government has at least five sepa- 

 rate and distinct chemical laboratories in 

 the city of Washington alone. 



