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FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1887. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



The death of General Hazen, chief signal oflS- 

 cer of the army, marks tlie close of the second 

 period of the development of our weather-bureau. 

 During the ten years from 1870 to 1880, while the 

 bureau was under the direction of its first chief. 

 General Myer, the labor expended upon it was 

 given in greatest part to its organization. Sta- 

 tions had to be selected and their instrumental 

 outfit determined ; the time and kind of obser- 

 vations had to be decided upon, and observers in- 

 structed in their duties ; the methods of reduc- 

 tion of data to practical form for use on a weather- 

 map had to be adapted to the needs of a larger 

 area than was ever before brought under the con- 

 trol of a single weather-office. Apart from the 

 almost exclusively military, constitution of the 

 service during these years, its most marked char, 

 acteristics in contrast with the European weather- 

 services were the large sums of public money de- 

 voted to its support, the system of tridaily obser- 

 vations, and the absolute control exercised over 

 all telegraphic lines in the collection of reports, in 

 virtue of the law of 1866. Its maps were thus 

 prepared more frequently and more promptly than 

 weather-maps are abroad, and were admired all 

 over the world. 



General Hazen took charge of a highly devel- 

 oped service, and turned his efforts in two direc- 

 tions that to most persons appeared quite contra- 

 dictory. He insisted on the need of military or. 

 ganization, and at the same time introduced 

 numerous and important improvements that had 

 nothing military about them. But during his 

 administration, public discussion was frequently 

 turned to the advisability of ' civilizing ' the 

 weather-bureau, for its work was not as successful 

 as was desired. A committee of the National 

 academy of sciences reported in favor of the 

 change, the then secretary of war urged it, and 

 a joint congressional commission recommended it, 

 three members of the commission advising a grad- 

 ual, and three an immediate, transfer from mili- 



No. 208 — 1887. 



tary to civil authority. Popular opinion very gen- 

 erally supported these recommendations, and the 

 chief objections to them came from the military 

 element of the service itself. All the official dec- 

 larations of the service maintained to the last that 

 a military organization was essential to success in 

 weather-prediction. It might be forcibly con- 

 tended, on the basis of published statements in 

 the annual reports, that the service had for its first 

 object the availability of its entire force in case of 

 war, were it not that its whole public work refuted 

 this theory. The real work of the service is the 

 announcement of the approach and force of storms 

 throughout the United States for the benefit of ag- 

 riculture and commerce in time of peace. 



The people at large have taken a great interest 

 in the government weather-bureau, and desire to 

 see its work continued and its predictions improved. 

 They would be glad to see an extension of scien- 

 tific study in its offices, for on such study all its 

 chances of better success depend. The opening 

 of the third period in its history will therefore be 

 watched with the deepest interest. The needs of 

 the service must be thoroughly and deliberately 

 considered. Immediate action, resulting in the 

 appointment either of a military chief or of a civil 

 director, would be deprecated on all sides, for the 

 interests involved are too great to be endangered 

 by hasty decision. Moreover, there is a very gen- 

 eral desire, on the part of meteorologists and of 

 scientists generally throughout the country, that 

 they should at least he heard in the matter before 

 decision is reached, so that whatever plan of future 

 organization is adopted shall be based on full and 

 open discussion. Deliberate action and authorized 

 opportimity for consideration of scientific as well 

 as of military methods are therefore of the first 

 importance. It should be the earnest effort of all 

 who have watched the development of the signal 

 service thus far to secure these guaranties of its 

 further progress. 



Mr. Atkinson's second article in the Century 

 magazine, on ' The relative strength and weak- 

 ness of nations,' is just as interesting as the first, 

 to which we called particular attention at the 



