Edtorial Comment. 55 
abroad as well as here. A pernicious influence must have 
been exerted on our sister republic of Switzerland, for at the 
Zurich meeting for the first time the cabal of international 
officialism began to abandon disguise. It was proclaimed by 
the presiding officer for the first time that two out of a num- 
ber of members from a certain country were '"delegates,*' 
because they each had a letter from the "official geologist" of 
the country recommending them as representatives of the 
"official geological survey." Thus the anomaly was presented 
of an employe of the Interior Department of his own land des- 
ignating who should sit as a representative of that land in the 
council of the Congress. It was for this reason that the writer 
offered the resolution requiring the next bureau to define who 
were "delegates," and who were authorized to appoint them. 
This resolution was unanimously carried by the Council. 
But owing to a practice which may possibly be due to the de- 
sire of the international geological trust to perpetuate itself, 
the volume containing the papers and transactions of one 
meeting is held back till just before the next meeting, or three 
years; indeed many of those who attend a meeting of the Con- 
gress see the volume of the preceding meeting only on return- 
ing to their homes. This prevents concerted action and puts 
off for six years any possibility of correcting an error which 
may occur in the volume. The translation of the resolution 
(which appears in the printed record of the 3d session of the 
council, Friday, Aug. 81, 1894) appeared in this journal in 
1894, and is as follows: "The Bureau of the Congress will 
consider the following questions and will reach decision in 
time to apply it to the organization of the next Congress. 
"1. To what extent does the (Congress recognize the right 
of governmental bureaus, as such, of societies, or of any kind 
of organizations, to send representatives to the Congress? 
"2. Within what limitations does the Congress recognize 
the right of such representatives or of only a portion of the 
members of the Congress coming from the same country to 
designate who shall be the vice-president representing their 
country, or to take any other steps (in the name of their 
country) without consultation with all their countryjnen 
members of the Congress? " 
The prospect that our Russian brethren will give the coup 
