330 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. V., No. 115. 



7. Bureau of mint and money. 



8. Bureau of education (including pedagogy, 



library, museum). 



9. Bureau of public works and improvements. 



10. Bureau of patent-office. 



11. Bureau of climate and weather. 



We shall thus have eleven bureaus instead of the 

 present numerous offices, and shall have succeeded 

 in bringing together, in closer relation, a number 

 of branches of public work. We may thus by so 

 much succeed in simplifying the working machine- 

 ry of the government, and possibly secure a slight 

 economy and improved results; but we are still 

 far from attaining that single scientific bureau, and 

 thereby that recognition of science, which we are 

 told is the general desire in this country, as also in 

 others, and have by no means assured the general 

 harmonious co-operation of these eleven bureaus 

 in so far as that may be necessary. There is, in 

 fact, no one of these bureaus whose operation is 

 not more or less intimately associated with those 

 of some others; and the ideal consolidation, when 

 pushed to the extreme, would require the union of 

 all these in one general department of science, ed- 

 ucation, and public works, — a slight combination, 

 such as in these eleven offices still leaves unsatisfied 

 the need of a higher general supervision. 



Thus far we have only been considering the poli- 

 cy of the executive branch of the government as a 

 business organization for the most economical ad- 

 ministration of the laws originating in the legisla- 

 tive branch. If, however, we should consider what 

 policy the legislative branch should adopt for the 

 best welfare of the country, we should undoubtedly 

 decide that it should give the greatest possible stim- 

 ulus, first, to both the ordinary and the highest 

 education of the people; second, to the execution 

 of national works of public utility (especially tak- 

 ing into its own hands the conduct of any work of 

 general importance, whenever that is neglected by 

 private enterprise, or whenever it is monopolized 

 by a few to the disadvantage of the mass of the 

 people or of the government itself) ; third, to sci- 

 ence and research as the means of developing the 

 resources of nature and of the nation. Acting on 

 these principles, other nations have, on the one 

 hand, made a limited education compulsory, and, 

 on the other, have provided the means for such 

 education ; they have demanded the highest attain- 

 ments and the best work in each department of 

 knowledge, and have provided universities and sci- 

 entific schools where men can receive the necessary 

 training; they have furnished most accurate topo- 



graphic charts in order to facilitate the construction 

 of roads, canals, and other internal improvements; 

 they have displayed the greatest activity in labors 

 relating to the public health, the development of 

 agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, the pre- 

 diction of storms and weather, protection against 

 spurious coin and measures, adulteration, etc. In 

 fact, most such other nations have exercised a more 

 minute oversight over affairs, individually as well 

 as collectively, than has been considered consistent 

 with the liberty of the citizens in a republican gov- 

 ernment. It is perhaps not practicable for this 

 nation, as yet, to go so far towards centralization 

 as others have done ; and yet we must look to our 

 national legislature for some protection against the 

 evils that arise from disconnected, and often dis- 

 cordant, individual actions. It must stimulate 

 every one's work, and yet secure harmonious action 

 on the part of those who are emulating each other 

 both in public and private life. For instance: we 

 have had, at one time, three or four topographical 

 surveys, six or eight chemical laboratories, four or 

 five meteorological bureaus, all in the government 

 service, often working on the same or allied prob- 

 blems ; while in civil life several other institutions 

 can be found going over the same or similar ground. 

 In this emulation and duplication lies the assurance 

 that each will do his work to the best of his ability. 

 The country, and the cause of knowledge, both profit 

 by an occasional duplication of work: the whole 

 progress of science consists in repeating the work 

 of others in the light of newer discoveries or better 

 knowledge, only it is necessary to know when such 

 duplication is needed. 



As the first and vital step towards a permanent 

 improvement in the whole round . of governmental 

 work, we would not advise the diminution of gov- 

 ernment officials engaged in the above eighty-seven 

 offices ; we would not curtail the scope of the work 

 carried on in each of those offices; we would not 

 re-arrange them under some new classification, since 

 even the best that can be thought of now is stiff, 

 formal, and artificial, cannot foresee the progress of 

 science, and will have to be changed a few years 

 hence: we approve, rather, of the great diversity 

 of work increasing every year, and carried on by 

 the government for the benefit of the nation ; the 

 more work and workers, the greater stimulus given 

 to the intellectual and material progress. Let each 

 bureau do its work according to its own needs, 

 whether these be military, ethnological, economic, 

 statistic, topographic, or what not; but let there 

 be somewhere an intelligent supervision of the 

 whole field. 



