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[N. S. Vol. V. No. 114 



cessity for their better organization as a 

 step towards the proper coordination of 

 their work. It is proposed at this place : 



First, to look at these and the other 

 scientific bureaus of the government from 

 the point of view of a National University, 

 so as to see what we already have in Wash- 

 ington as basal material for siich an institu- 

 tion and what will have to provide, in ad- 

 dition thereto, and 



Second, to point out a method by which 

 the Civil Service Commission can be used 

 to promote the National University and as- 

 sist the proper persons in securing its ad- 

 vantages and opportunities. 



1. AVHAT MATERIAL HAVK WE ALREADY IN 

 WASHINGTON ? 



A good deal of work is going on in the 

 Congressional Library and the libraries of 

 the State and other departments, which cor- 

 responds to the literary work of a univer- 

 sity, but there is little else in the government 

 in Washington which would answer as a 

 foundation for the departments of philology 

 and philosophy of such an institution. 

 These, however, are almost the only im- 

 portant departments which are not already 

 represented here. Anthropology is repre- 

 sented by the Bureau of Ethnology and 

 several other bureaus in the Smithsonian 

 Institution and the National Museum. 

 Political science and the science of society 

 are represented by the several executive de- 

 partments, by Congi-ess and, more especially, 

 in the work of the Congressional and other 

 great libraries. Economics is pursued in 

 many of its branches by all of these and es- 

 pecially by the Bureau of Statistics of the 

 Treasury Department, the Department of 

 Labor, and by the Census, which we hope is 

 soon to be made a permanent thing. Juris- 

 prudence and law are represented by the 

 Supreme Court and the other Courts of the 

 District; history by several bureaus in the 

 State Department, the Smithsonian Institu- 



tion and the Congressional Library; and 

 education by the Bureau of Education, the 

 office of Indian Affairs, the Department of 

 Agriculture, etc. In these we have already, 

 if not active teaching agencies, at least the 

 very best facilities in these subjects to be 

 found anywhere in this country, if not in 

 the world. 



It is in the department of science, how- 

 ever, that the government has the most and 

 best basal material ready to hand upon 

 which to build a National University. This 

 department is weakest, perhaps, in some of 

 the pure sciences. Mathematics, however, 

 is ably represented by the National Observ- 

 atory and the Nautical Almanac. Physics 

 is illustrated extensively in the several 

 bureaus of steam engineering, construction 

 and ordnance of the Navy Department, and 

 in the engineering and testing laboratories 

 of the War Department. Almost every 

 conceivable application of physics is studied 

 in the Patent Office, and many of them also 

 in the Coast Survey and the Weather 

 Bureau. Engineering is also represented 

 in the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the 

 General Land Office, the various hydro- 

 graphic offices and many other bureaus. 

 Chemistry is practiced extensively in many 

 laboratories, notably those of the Geological 

 Survey and the Department of Agriculture. 



In the Geological Survey and the National 

 Museum we have the material for a de- 

 partment of geology, geography and paleon- 

 tology, etc. ; in the National Herbarium and 

 the Division of Botany of the Department 

 of Agriculture the material for a school of 

 botany ; in the Biological Survey, the Com- 

 mission of Fish and Fisheries and the 

 National Museum again, a complete col- 

 lection of specimens and equipment is found 

 for a department of general biology. And 

 so through all the natural sciences. The 

 men, the material and the laboratories are 

 nearly all here already. 



The material for the chief great profes- 



