Arnn. S4, 1888.)
��SCIENCE.
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��work is that it is far removed tcora that public criticism which is so conducive to efficiency in other branches of the service. It is diffleult to conceive that such a state of things as was exhibited by the surveys of the territories ten years ago could have existed in the perform- ance of any work with which the public were conversant. At that time we bad at least two independent surveys of the territories, prose- cuted by different deparltueiits of the govern- ment, and with nominally different objects, but which were practically identical in their actual work. The officers in charge were independ- ently surveying and mapping the very same regions. At the time that Hayden's Atlas of Colorado was published, Capt. Wheeler was engaged in surveying Colorado, and making maps of the territory snbstantially identical in their objects with those of Hayden, Both surveys were intended to cover the whole pub- tic domain.
Nothing quite so bad as this is likely to arise in the future. But there is atiil room for much duplication of work, as well as waste through competition in getting possession of particular fields. As a general rule, the head of a department is quite ready to approve of any extension of work which any of his bureau officers may pro[>ose, and has not always time to learn that the same work is being done, or niight be better done, by some other depart- ment. The annual provision which congress has got into the habit of inserting into the ap- propriations for the signal-office — "provided that hereafter the work of no other depart- ment, bureau, or commission authorized by- law shall be duplicated by this bureau " — is not quite satisfactory : it leaves open the ques- tion whether any proposed work is " the work of any other department, bureau, or com- mission."
The report of the National academy of sci- ences proposes to remedy some of these evils by placing the general policy of the scientific bureaus under the control of a mLxed com- mission, organized somewhat after the plan of the Lighthouse board. If the bureaus are to remain separate, we see no better plan than
��this for securing the proper co-ordination of their work ; but Major Powell points out cer- tain difficulties in the way of its successful operation. His strongest objection is, that subordinate officers of various departments would have to practically control the work, thus reducing the beads of the departmeuts to channels for transmitting instructions. If the proposed commission were to assume any ad- ministrative control of the work, this objection would certainly be fatal. The official respon- sibility of the head of a department for the work of his bureaus should not be interfered with. But the report of the academy ex- pressly disclaims charging the commission with any administrative responsibility. Its sole function was to prescribe the policy of the bureaus ; that is, to decide what each one should do, and what each one should refrain from doing : the whole execution of the work decided upon being left completely in the hands of the regular authorities. We see no reason why this should be ' irksome ' to the heads of the departments. We also feel that Major Powell assigns undue importance to the influeuce of the single military officer proposed by the academy as one of the nine members of the commission. It is not so clear to us, as it seems to he to him, that one such officer could leaven the whole lump of the commis- sion with ideas of military discipUne unsuit- able to the conduct of a scientific bureau.
But however favorably we may view the plan of this commission, we must bold that the consolidation of the bureaus under a single head, or in a single department, would give far more assurance of efficiency, Especiall)' is this the case with the two national surveys. Their work now covers the same fields, and their mutual interdependence is such that they should work under a common plan. The geo- logical sun-ey requires for its projier cxecnlJon certain geodetic and astronomical work, the execution of which is not within the proper province of the geologist. It is absolutely necessary that this geodetic and astronomical work should lie so planned and executed as to meet the wants of the geological survey, and
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