142 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



his wonderfully broad and complete investigation of the mining- 

 debris problem in the Sierra Nevada the geologist began with the 

 antagonism of mining and agriculture, but he soon found that his 

 research also involved questions of relative values between com- 

 merce and irrigation and power development. So this report, 

 thoroughly scientific in data and method, will illustrate how high 

 a public service can be directly rendered by the geologist. Nor is 

 this a new departure : some of us belong to the generation to whom 

 Monograph i of the United States Geological Survey was a source 

 of inspiration in our student days. That monumental work by the 

 same author, a classic in its exposition of geologic processes, was 

 the result of an investigation also planned as the answer to an 

 economic question of large civic importance. Director King thus 

 stated in 1880 the purpose of the Lake Bonneville monograph : " Is 

 the desert growing still drier or is it gaining in moisture are ques- 

 tions upon the lips of every intelligent settler in that region." 



Moreover, aside from making our science more human, there is 

 the larger need of humanizing ourselves. Doctor Favill, of Chicago, 

 in addressing a group of business men last winter, gave them this 

 professional advice: " Have an outside interest"; and the outside 

 interest he prescribed was political or social activity. This physician 

 regarded it as conducive to individual happiness as well as helpful 

 to society that " every honest, able-bodied, red-blooded, clear-think- 

 ing man should have his mind set on what is the right thing for him, 

 for his community and his country to do." 



The Austrian geologist Suess may furnish the best illustration of 

 the happy combination of scientist and citizen. He was a leader not 

 only in the science of the world but in the parliament of his country. 

 A close student of geologic discovery even after reaching fourscore 

 years, Professor Suess was equally keen to learn of political progress 

 the world over, and in a letter to me within a year of his death he 

 inquired particularly about the reforms in public-land administration 

 in the United States. 



Appreciation of civic duties has fortunately not been lacking in 

 American geologists : one of the best volumes on citizenship was 

 written years ago by Professor Shaler, and it is worthy of mention 

 that in that book he emphasized not so much the opportunities for 

 service in high station, for he states that the best work in the 

 practice of citizenship is done in the town or precinct. "In these 

 fields of activity the spirit of the freeman is made ; if the local life 

 be not of a high citizenly character, all the constitutions in the 



