I36 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



geologists than the United States Geological Survey, we realize that 

 our federal service must rest its claim to consideration on some- 

 thing other than size. 



In other lines, too, the science of geology is gaining the recog- 

 nition that we perhaps feel has too long been withheld. Especially 

 gratifying is the tendency of constructing engineers to consult 

 geologists in matters related to large engineering projects. To the 

 trained geologist, familiar with the many kinds of rocks and their 

 varied habits of assembling together, it has seemed strange indeed 

 that so many engineers have gone ahead on the theory that rock 

 is rock and that nothing can be learned of the third dimension of 

 the earth's crust in advance of actual excavation. Possibly, how- 

 ever, some of this blame may be laid at our own door, for geologists 

 do not always seem firm believers in the practical side of their own 

 science, and only in these later years have we learned to talk of 

 the facts of geology with any approach to the quantitative exactness 

 that engineers expect. Even now a wide difference in degree of 

 scientific accuracy and refinement may be noticed in the manner 

 in which we handle data in our own particular specialty and data 

 relating to some other phase of geology or to another branch of 

 science. This lack of respect for specialized science may sometimes 

 be found in our own midst, even though we call ourselves specialists. 



The opportunities for expansion are plainly before us, for the 

 practical worth of geology is now widely acknowledged. How can 

 we best increase the contributions of geology to mankind? Has 

 the science other possibilities ? What is its relation to public service? 



In the last three years it has been gratifying to see the prepared- 

 ness issue broaden so as to include the contingencies of peace as 

 well as of war, to hear of industrial as well as of military prepared- 

 ness. But back of both, and indeed including both, there needs to 

 be a more vital preparedness — the preparation for citizenship. 

 In any day and generation this test can and should be applied to 

 any religion, philosophy or science : Does it make good citizens ? 

 It is therefore with real concern that we ask ourselves this question : 

 Does geology contribute to citizenship ? 



The president of this society, in a thought-inspiring address at 

 the University of Chicago convocation this year, made reference to 

 a little red-brick building here in Albany, which this city does 

 well to preserve — the laboratory of James Hall. And I believe 

 Doctor Clarke is right in regarding that small and plain structure 

 as the source of broad conceptions of the philosophy of evolution, 



