Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/351

 �SCIENCE

��SUPPLEMENT TO No. us, FRIDAY. APRIL 17. 1885

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��REFORMATION OF SCIENTIFIC LEGISLATION.

��Among the pTopositions floating in men's minds with regard to the re-org«nization of the scientific and economical works of the federal government are several that can easily be disposed of as impiac- ticable or otherwise objectionable. It will be ne- cessary to enumerate and disposa of a few of these before suggesting any satbfactory solution of this important question.

1. The proposition to put the conduct of the specially scieutific work, such as geology, geodesy, meteorology, astronomy, into the hands of the Smithsonian institution. This institution is sup- ported wholly by the income of trust-funds dedi- cated to a specific purpose by James Smilhson. for whom the government accepted the position of ex- ecutor; and the government cannot legally impose upoD this institution any labors or expenses not warranted by the terms of Smithson's will, as in- terpreted by the highest legal authority in the land. The proper interpretation of the intent of the tes- tator has already been so clearly settled and widely accepted, that it is incredible that now, in the full tide of the prosecution of his desires, the govern- ment, as executor, will attempt to divert his funds to other uses. But it will be said, the United States has merely to appropriate additional funds to enable the institution to carry out the proposed increase in its work and responsibility. This seems plausible ; and if carried into effect, al- though it would seem to add these duties to those of the present secretary of the institution, yet it need not necessarily do so: in fact, it is not to be supposed that the United-States government would put tlie conduct of all its public works into the hands of one man. Probably the authors of this plan bad in mind the regents of the Smithsonian institution, and not the secretary, as the body to which the government should assign its scientiRe work: in other words, to the regents of the Smith- sonian should be confided the question of the con- duct both of that institution and of all our public works. It is argued iu favor of this, that we have

���here one institution of a high character, managed already organized and recognized, and that the transfer of others to them would be a simple matter. It already has charge of not only the Smithsonian institution proper, but of the national museum, fish-commission, bureau of ethnology, the care of the collections made by geological sur- veys — and why not of every thing else? But there are many other organizations under government auspices, composed of men who stand ready to un- dertake great trusts; and who will maintain that the regents have any special qualifications over others? By the law of 1810, the board of regents consists of eight persons chosen from the legisla- tive and executive bodies, and six other persons not members of congress (two of them resident in Washington, and the other four from distant state*). Among the twelve persons now constituting the board of regents, we find only one person that can be called a scientific man, — Professor Asa Gray of Cambridge. From the beginning, the pol- icy of the regents has been to appoint a scientific and practical man as secretary, or superintendent, or director of the institution, who is, in fact, sim- ply an autocrat, although legally he is the execu- tive officer of the board of regents. Under this aiTangement, various branches of activity have prospered, such as the library, the museum, the departments of exchanges, of publications, of me- teorology, mineralogy, anthropology, etc. ; and these departments have grown to be large divisions of work- The work of the fish-commission seems never to have been carried on at the expense of the Smithsonian, but was entirely extra work fostered by the regents, in that Professor Baird was allowed to give a portion of bis time to it, while the ex- penses were borne by special appropriations from congress: we may therefore look upon the U. S. fish -com mission, which was established by law in 1871. en a scientific and practical institution, fostered hy the Smithsonian, but having an inde- pendent existence of its ovm. The policy of the

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