48 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 341. 



fall advantage should be taken of these op- 

 portunities is greatly to be desired. This 

 desire is confessed by the Congress itself in 

 the joint resolution of April 12, 1892, to be 

 referred to more fully hereafter, and is fre- 

 quently expressed by the directors of the 

 •scientific work of the government. But it 

 by no means follows that the only way, or 

 indeed the best way, to make use of these 

 opportunities is through the creation of 

 a statutory, degree-conferring university. 

 The objections to such an institution far 

 outweigh any possible advantages which 

 might follow from its establishment for the 

 sole purpose of making fully effective the 

 existing opportunities for higher instruction 

 and research in connection with the gov- 

 ernment service, especially as it is possible 

 to make these opportunities fully effective in 

 what is in our judgment a simpler and a bet- 

 ter way. 



DECLARATION OF THE COMMITTEE. 



The committee, therefore, by unanimous 

 vote — twelve members being present and 

 voting — adopted the following declaration 

 on November 3, 1899 : 



1. It has been and is one of the recognised 

 functions of the federal government to encourage 

 and aid, but not to control, the educational in- 

 strumentalities of the country. 



2. No one of the bills heretofore brought be- 

 fore Congress to provide for the incorporation of 

 a national university at Washington commends 

 itself to the judgment of this committee as a 

 practicable measure. 



3. The government is not called upon to main- 

 tain at the capital a university in the ordinary 

 sense of the term. 



ALTERNATIVE PLANS. 



In this declaration the committee an- 

 swered in the negative the first question 

 under consideration, namely : Should there 

 be established a statutory university of the 

 United States ? 



The second question before the committee 



was : Should the Congress be asked to 

 place the educational facilities of the gov- 

 ernment departments at the disposal of a 

 non-governmental institution ? 



It appears from the public record that 

 the Congress has already done this. There 

 are two expressions of the will and the 

 purpose of the Congress in this matter. 



The first is contained in the joint resolu- 

 tion, approved April 12, 1892, which is as 

 follows : 



Joint resolution to encourage the establisbment 

 and endowment of institutions of learning at the 

 national capital by defining the policy of the govern- 

 ment with reference to the use of its literary and 

 scientific collections by students : 



Whereas, Large collections illustrative of the 

 various arts and sciences, and facilitating literary and 

 scientific research, have been accumulated by the 

 action of Congress through a series of years at the 

 national capital ; and 



Whereas, It was the original purpose of the gov- 

 ernment thereby to promote research and the diffusion 

 of knowledge, and is now the settled policy and 

 present practice of those charged with the care of 

 these collections specially to encourage students who 

 devote their time to the investigation and study of 

 any branch of knowledge by allowing to them all 

 proper use thereof ; and 



Whereas, It is represented that the enumeration 

 of these facilities and the formal statement of this 

 policy will encourage the establishment and endow- 

 ment of institutions of learning at the seat of govern- 

 ment, and promote the work of education by attract- 

 ing students to avail themselves of the advantages 

 aforesaid under the direction of competent in- 

 structors ; therefore, 



Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives 

 of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, 

 That the facilities for research and illustration in the 

 following and any other governmental collections 

 now existing or hereafter to be established in the city 

 of Washington for the promotion of knowledge shall 

 be accessible, under such rules and restrictions as the 

 officers in charge of each collection may prescribe, 

 subject to such authority as is now or may hereafter 

 be permitted by law, to the scientific investigators 

 and to students of any institution of higher education 

 now incorporated or hereafter to be incorporated 

 under the laws of Congress or of the District of 

 Columbia, to wit : 



One. Of the Library of Congress. 



Two. Of the National Museum. 



