Apeil 2, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



529 



Government officials ; and they have no 

 right to complain of lack of appreciation by 

 men whom they have once deceived. Those 

 who would win the respect of others must 

 first respect themselves. 



The widely scattered condition of the 

 scientific bureaus of the Government in 

 "Washington is sufficient in itself to prevent 

 a normal development of those interests in 

 which the whole country is concerned, and 

 for which important legislation and large 

 appropriations have been urgently invoked 



If the opponents of scientific work under 

 the control of the general government had 

 sought for a system that should produce 

 generally the least valuable results for the 

 money and energy expended, it would be 

 •difficult to see how they could have devised 

 a plan better suited to their purposes than 

 the one which has existed in Washington 

 for many years. 



Until the organization of the Department 

 of Agriculture no change had been made, 

 since the foundation of the Republic, in the 

 custom of founding scientific bureaus or 

 divisions in the various departments, like 

 mission churches on the extreme frontier^ 

 with scant visible means of support, and 

 no active, intelligent or discriminating offi- 

 cial interest as an effective, sustaining 

 power in the inevitable struggle with ad- 

 verse legislation and ill-considered, semi- 

 official criticism. 



In the fiscal year of 1895-6 Congress 

 appropriated in round numbers $4,500,000 

 for such scientific work as requires special 

 and technical training in those who carry 

 out the details, and a high degree of scien- 

 tific knowledge and skill in those who 

 actually plan and superintend the work and 

 finally prepare and present the results to 

 the public. 



This amount is very unequally divided 

 between the Treasury, War, Navy, Interior, 

 Agriculture and Labor Departments, and 

 amounts, in the aggregate, to about one per 



cent, of all the money appropriated for these 

 several departments. Considering the total 

 appropriations for each department it is 

 found that scientific work is accorded in 

 the Treasury Department about one-half of 

 one per cent. ; in the War Department six- 

 liundredths of one per cent.; in the ISTavy 

 Department seventy-six hundredths of one 

 per cent.; in the Interior Department one 

 per cent., and in the Agricultui'al Depart- 

 ment //iy-i/iree per cent. 



It should be noted that the Department 

 of Agriculture was organized for a special 

 purpose — to treat the vast interests of agri- 

 culture in a technical and scientific manner ; 

 and it is the only executive department of 

 the Government whose principal interests 

 and energies are fostered and guided by the 

 methods and the results of modern science. 



The highly important duties of a national 

 character which require the daily attention 

 of the heads of the large executive depart- 

 ments naturally occupy all the time at their 

 disposal and absorb their active interest. 



Under such conditions it is not likely 

 that the quiet and undemonstrative scien- 

 tific bureaus can receive the intelligent care 

 and sympathy necessary to their proper de- 

 velopment. It can not be said truthfully 

 that this lack of support is due to any fault 

 of the various Secretaries. 



It is due primarily to the inherent weak- 

 ness of a system which, if it ever worked 

 well, in the present crowded and compli- 

 cated work of the larger departments, now 

 leaves the various scientific bureaus to shift 

 for themselves and permits them to be 

 driven out of the field of consideration in 

 competition with the imperative and legiti- 

 mate work of such departments. 



It is not likely that this unfortunate con- 

 dition of the scattered scientific bureaus 

 will improve under the present conditions. 



This peculiar situation has been a source 

 of considerable anxiety in the minds of 

 many scientific men for the last fifteen 



