Vol.. 6, 1920 
GEOLOGY: COMMITTEE REPORT 
715 
Acting Director, to take part in any scientific undertaking which comes 
within the scope of its deed of trust, and the other, the University of 
Hawaii, possesses good laboratories and an increasingly strong scientific 
faculty. 
The irnportance of world-wide correlation of plans for the advancement 
of the earth sciences has been referred to repeatedly in the course of this 
discussion. In closing it seems appropriate to call the attention of the 
Secretary of Agriculture to the developments now in progress aiming to 
secure the cooperation of agencies in many countries in promoting re- 
searches in meteorology, seismology, and volcanology, as well as in various 
sciences. 
During the late war the National Academy of Sciences, at the request 
of President Wilson, organized the National Research Council to assist 
in coordinating and developing the research facilities of the United States, 
first as a measure of national defense and later as an aid in prosecuting 
the war. The success of this advisory and cooperative body has led to 
its perpetuation by the Academy, as directed by the President in an execu- 
tive order of May 11, 1918. 
The benefits of similar organization in other countries and of coopera- 
tion between the research agencies of different countries have been so 
fully recognized that an International Research Council has been formed 
by representatives of central bodies corresponding to the National Re- 
search Council, in several of the allied and associated countries. 
One of the principal fields of effort for this International Research Coun- 
cil is to secure the formation under its auspices and with desirable unity 
and coordination of a number of international associations devoted to 
particular fields of science. These new organizations replace, in some 
instances, older ones whose operations were suspended during the war 
and cannot be revived to advantage under existing conditions. 
Among these new bodies of international scope is the International 
Geophysical Union, devoted to a harmonious development of the earth 
sciences of physical aspect, dealing with many over-lapping problems. 
This Union has sections of (a) Geodesy; {h) Seismology; {c) Meteorology; 
{d) Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity; {e) Physical Oceanography; 
(0 Volcanology. (A section of Geochemistry has been added since the 
submission of this Report.) As a part of the plan there will be organized 
in each country participating in the International Research Council a 
branch of the Union with sections corresponding to those named. Thus, 
in the United States, the American Geophysical Union has already been 
formed, in connection with the National Research Council. Professor 
Marvin is the Chairman of the Section of Meteorology. The membership 
of the various sections embraces a considerable number of leading investi- 
gators of the country in the special fields involved. 
It is therefore possible at the present time to bring projects for the de- 
