Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/352

 rVoi- v.. No. 115.

��ioetitutioa has been little bj little to secure an in- dependent eiial«Qce for each of ito varied depart- ments, 60 tbat the trust-funda at ila disposal could be utilized for new fields of work, — a policy fully justified by the intensely practical value of its labors in the increase uiid diffusion of knowl- edge. Thus it happened, that, as eoan as the library of congress had an organization and income sufficient to warrant the step, the Smithsonian transferred to its care its large scientific library, and relinquished the idea of maintaining a separate library of its own. Similarly, in 1874, the signal- office weather-bureau having apparently a aeparate existence of its own, the institution transferred to it its great collection of meteorological data and correspondence, thus relinquishing its own division of n'ork in that department. More recently its system of international exchanges, as also its mu- MQin and its luineralogical and anthropological col- lections, have been recognized as worthy of special encouragement by the government, and have been either made into separate departments, or partially transferred to the geological survey, the national museum, ete.

In a hundred ways the devoted chiefs Henry and Baird have known how to stimulate and co- operate in the increase and diffusion of knowledge. It is now proposed to reverse this process by which separate institutions have grown up as children under the Smithsonian, and have gone out from it when able to stand alone, and to send them all back, with others, to the fostering care of the parent. Evidently, however, some new plan of organization must be adopted before these full- grown institutions can be comfortably lioused to' gether. The secretaries, Professors Henry and Baird, have neither of them ever indicated their ability, willingness, or desire to be burdened with the responsibility of so many great organizations; and the regents, composed of statesmen and the executive officers of the government, are not the proper persons to whom to commit these important interests, involving the aimual expenditure of from five to twenty million dollars, and in respect to which the expenses of the present administration of the Smithsonian, or the responsibility of its present regents, are quite insignificant. Some satisfactory co-ordination of government work is certainly desirable, — such a co-operation of all departments as has been especially shown by the surgeon -grn era) 's office, the signal-office, the navy and the interior departments, in their relations with the Smithsonian. But to put all under the present board of regents of the Smithsonian, who

��are merely the advisers of our government as executor of Smithson's will, is not a very dignified proceeding, and is utterly contrary to the provisions and spirit of the federal constitution, according to which the executive power is vested in the presi- dent, to whom is allowed a cabinet officer In charge of each of the executive departments; and all dis- bursements of public moneys must take place through and with the authority of some one of these executive officers.

2 A second proposition has been thrown out by the committoe appointed by the president of the National academy of sciences. Prof. O. C. Marsb. This committee, although consisting of members of the academy, does not speak with the authority of that academy as such, as its views were never submitted to, or ratified by, the academy. On ths one previous occasion, when congress asked advice of the academy in a matter of legislation concern- ing the consolidation of surveys, the repoi't of the committee was discussed, amended, and adopted by the academy as & whole, as, indeed, the impor- tance of the subject warranted ; and the recommen- dation of the academy was sufficiently mature to command the respect of all. In the present case this has not been done; and whatever aid or sug- gestion this present committee has given, is there- fore to be credited to them individually, and has not the weight of the authority of the academy as such. The committee, after being shorn of two ol its best members, has submitted two distinct propo- sitions, both of which are, they say, ' the general sentiment and wish of men of science,' although they give us no hint as to how they discovered or drew out such expressions of opinion. Both their propositions embody the general feature of the col- lection of the scientific and other bureaus under one general authority, to be recoginized as responsi- ble for and controlling generally the scientific op- erations of the government. Among the definite forms that might be given to such central authority, they specify two ; namely, ^

(A) The establishment of a new special depart- ment of science as one of the principal branch«s of the executive department of the government (see article ii. of the federal constitution), to which shall be given the direction and control of all the purely scientific work of the government; and which work should be cultivated, they say, because scientific investigation promotes that general wel- fare the attainment of which was the object of the constitutioa

(/i) The transfer of all such work or bnreaiu as now exist to some one of the present execntive

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