January 22, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



147 



Technology, on January 13th, elected Professor 

 James M. Crafts, of the chemistry department, 

 chairman pro tern, of the faculty, pending the 

 election of a successer to the late Gen. F. A. 

 Walker as President. 



Me. G. a. Hobart, Vice-President elect, has 

 given $5,000 to Rutgers, of which he is a 

 graduate. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 



A NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE. 



To THE Editor of Science : I have just 

 seen in the current number of Science Dr. 

 Dabney's discussion of this subject, and, feeling 

 that the natural inferences most persons un- 

 acquainted with government work would draw 

 from it, must be not only inaccurate but mis- 

 chievous, I feel obliged to point out that there 

 are at least two sides to the question, and it is 

 extremely doubtful whether the establishment 

 of such a department would be beneficial to 

 science, economical or efficient to a degree war- 

 ranting the change. 



With much that Dr. Dabney has written I am 

 in accord; it is his conclusions, and the inferences 

 to be drawn from his manner of presenting the 

 facts, that demand further examination. 



It is nothing new for people to assume that 

 the proposal of a new set of well chosen names, 

 a new classification of well known facts, or a 

 cleverly drawn scheme of organization of pre- 

 viously distinct agencies, has in itself added 

 something to knowledge, or possesses an in- 

 herent power of some undefined sort to make 

 things easier, cheaper or better. Such assump- 

 tions are at the basis of nearly all cranky 

 theories, as well as occasional good ones. No 

 scientific man should accept such hypotheses 

 without a thorough investigation of the facts. 



I take it that the object of a scientific bureau 

 is to gather, digest and disseminate facts in re- 

 gard to matters with which it is officially 

 charged. If this work is done promptly, effi- 

 ciently and accurately, at a reasonable cost, the 

 bureau justifies its existence, and not otherwise. 

 It is of no consequence, whatever, to the bureau 

 and its work whether it is attached to one de- 

 partment or another, or to none, if the bureau 

 is conducted by a competent person on scientific 

 principles, and with a view simply to getting 



the best possible results. The origin and suc- 

 cess of our scientific bureaus has been due, as 

 Dr. Dabney points out, to the fact that they are, 

 in the main, the crystallized result of individual 

 effort exerted in a particular field and with 

 the object of attaining certain definite ends. 



The men to whom we owe our best scientific 

 agencies under government, worked, and often 

 gave their lives prematurely, not to get offices, 

 or titles, or salaries, or to add a new name to 

 the lists of bureaus in the blue books, but to 

 promote research and benefit the nation by its 

 results. This, too, has been the object of their 

 successors in conscientious devotion. The 

 danger and difficulty which has threatened the 

 bureaus, and never more than at the present 

 time, has been the intrusion of politics or per- 

 sonal interest in appointments, and the stifling 

 of individual initiative by an excess of red tape,, 

 imposed generally in good faith by Congress 

 with the idea of preventing abuses. 



From Dr. Dabney's account it might be sup- 

 posed that a number of bureaus were, to a greater 

 or less extent, duplicating each other's work, 

 and the inference is direct from his argument 

 that this duplication might and should be pre- 

 vented hy a consolidation of the various bureaus. 

 The supposition is, I believe, quite erroneous and 

 the inference wholly fallacious. 



The bureaus exist to do work, and the advis- 

 ability of any change in organization must be 

 measured by its capacity for increasing results, 

 improving efiioiency, and promoting economy 

 without lessening the product measured in re- 

 sults. If consolidation would diminish results, 

 impair efficiency, and do away with individual 

 responsibility to any marked degree, it would 

 be dearly bought. That this would be the case, 

 under present conditions, there can be hardly 

 any doubt ; and the coolness with which the 

 proposition, which is by no means new, has 

 been met in Congress is, I am convinced, due 

 to the fact that the more influential members, 

 as good business men, recognize that the hy- 

 pothesis is without the essentials of a workable 

 scheme. 



At present most of the bureaus are attached 

 to some department. The head of that depart- 

 ment has many divisions to supervise. In gen- 

 eral, even if not specially interested in science 



