Bureau of Plant Industry, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Chemistry, the Bureau of Soils, the Bureau of Entomology, the Bureau of Biological Survey, the Office of Experiment Stations, and the Office of Public Roads. Under the Department of Commerce and Labor we find the Bureau of Corporations, the Bureau of Manufactures, the Bureau of Labor, the Bureau of the Census, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Bureau of Fisheries, the Bureau of Standards, and the Bureau of Statistics.

ADMINISTRATION VERSUS EDUCATION.

Of the extent and value of the researches made by these various offices and bureaus there can be no doubt whatever. The scientific results are admirable alike in quantity, quality, and range of subjects. Of the investigations which have given American science its credit and its standing in other countries, a surprisingly large proportion have been conducted in government departments. But it has been felt in many quarters that these bureaus were not administered in such a way as to have the maximum educational value. The work has not been done by students but by officials. The very fact that its scientific and administrative usefulness is so great has emphasized its lack of direct connection with the educational system of the country. It has been felt that if a larger number of students were trained in the government offices at Washington, this would form a natural development and culmination of our whole system of public instruction.

Under these influences the Fifty-second Congress, in the year 1892, passed the following joint resolution" to encourage the establishment and endowment of institutions of learning at the national capital by defining the policy of the Government with reference to the use of its literary and scientific collections by students."

Whereas large collections illustrative of the various arts and sciences and facilitating literary and scientific research have been accumulated by the action of Congress through a series of years at the national capital; and

Whereas it was the original purpose of the Government thereby to promote research and the diffusion of knowledge, and is now the settled policy and present practice of those charged with the care of these collections specially to encourage students who devote their time to the investigation and study of any branch of knowledge by allowing to them all proper use thereof; and

Whereas it is represented that the enumeration of these facilities and the formal statement of this policy will encourage the establishment and endowment of institutions of learning at the seat of Government, and promote the work of education by attracting students to avail themselves of the advantages aforesaid under the direction of competent instructors: Therefore,

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the facilities for research and illustration in the following and any other governmental collections now existing or here

after to be established in the city of Washington for the promotion of knowledge shall be accessible, under such rules and restrictions as the officers in charge of each collection may prescribe, subject to such authority as is now or may hereafter be permitted by law, to the scientific investigators and students of any institution of higher education now incorporated or hereafter to be incorporated under the laws of Congress or of the District of Columbia, to wit: Of the Library of Congress.

One.

Two.

Of the National Museum.

Nine years later this was supplemented by a further resolution, approved March 3, 1901:

That facilities for study and research in the government departments, the Library of Congress, the National Museum, the Zoological Park, the Bureau of Ethnology, the Fish Commission, the Botanic Gardens, and similar institutions hereafter established shall be afforded to scientific investigators and to duly qualified individuals, students, and graduates of institutions of learning in the several States and Territories, as well as in the District of Columbia, under such rules and restrictions as the heads of the departments and bureaus mentioned may prescribe.

The first of these acts was avowedly an attempt to encourage the incorporation of educational institutions in the District of Columbia. The second was an attempt to extend privileges to individual students without reference to their connection with any organized educational body.

It can not be said that either of these acts has produced results commensurate with the expectations. The George Washington University has, indeed, numbered among its members many students who were supporting themselves by work in the departments. But with the exception of certain students of medicine who have obtained valuable scientific privileges in the government hospitals, this connection has been a means of self-support for the student rather than of scientific training. The George Washington Memorial Association, founded in 1901, made it one of its main objects to direct the work of students pursuing their researches in the various departments. What might have come from this movement if it had been vigorously pursued it is impossible to tell. What actually happened was that the gift of Mr. Carnegie of $10,000,000 for the establishment of the Carnegie Institution, a few months later, turned the thoughts of the promoters of the Washington Memorial Institution into other chan

nels by giving them funds under their own control with which to direct researches, instead of making them dependent upon the close cooperation of the departments at Washington. Under these circumstances the movement, as an organized movement, was abandoned. The student who comes to Washington to-day to get his scientific training in a government department comes under his own impulse and at his own risk.

EXISTING FACILITIES FOR STUDY AND RESEARCH.

The existing facilities for study and research divide themselves into three groups:

1. Facilities open to the general public; to wit, libraries and

museums.

2. Training schools for class instruction in preparation for specific departments of the government service.

3. Laboratory facilities and personal instruction available to individual investigators in the various government offices, whether these investigators be actually in the employ of the Government or not.

FACILITIES AVAILABLE FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

The Library of Congress on June 30, 1907, contained 1,434,000 printed books and pamphlets, including the books deposited in the Smithsonian Institution and the law library of 122,000 volumes, which, while a division of the Library of Congress, still remains at the Capitol; besides 98,000 maps and charts, 465,000 pieces of music, and 254,000 photographs and prints.

On June 30, 1908, the number of printed books and pamphlets had increased to 1,535,008.

Both in the arrangement of the Library and the rules regarding its use, every facility is given to investigators. For reference use the Library is absolutely free, without introduction or credential, to any inquirer from any place. The general reader is supposed to carry on his work in the main reading room; but if he is pursuing investigations which imperatively require access to the shelves he receives the necessary permission, and if he is engaged in research involving continuous use of a number of the same books day after day, he is given a table in an alcove. If he desires to dictate to a stenographer he is assigned a separate room for doing so. There is no limit to the number of books which he may draw for refer

ence use.

The arrangement of the catalogues and the organization of the Library staff are such as to facilitate to the utmost the work of the independent inquirer of every grade, from the casual reader, who wants a specific piece of information, to the scientific investigator,

who wants to find everything that has been printed on a particular topic.

The usefulness of the Library as an aid to scientific research is by no means limited to the work done within its own walls. Doctor Putnam, the Librarian, has, during the nine years of his administration, developed a system of cooperation between the different libraries of the country which is of inestimable advantage to investigators everywhere. It is now possible for students in any of our large libraries to find out pretty accurately the books that are to be had and the work that can be done in the others. By the system of interlibrary loans the material in the Library of Congress is actually put at the disposal of responsible investigators all over the country. Under this system the Library of Congress will loan certain books to other libraries for the use of investigators engaged in serious research. This means that any scholar or advanced student who is within reach of a responsible local library which can guarantee proper care of the books can obtain, without the expense of going to Washington, the opportunity to study large classes of scientific and literary material which the Library of Congress possesses, and which the local library can not expect to possess. The importance of this system to the scholars of the country can not possibly be overestimated.

Libraries of the separate departments and bureaus of the Government. There are some twenty-five of these, probably containing a total of nearly 1,500,000 volumes and pamphlets," the great majority of them, however, duplicates of material existing in the Library of Congress.

"A detailed estimate of the number of volumes in these libraries, published by Mr. C. D. Walcott seven years ago, reads as follows:

By far the most important of these libraries, in public use as well as in number of books, is that of the Surgeon-General's Office. This library deals with all branches of medicine, surgery, and the allied sciences. It provides a reading room for the general public and special facilities for competent investigators who desire to make scientific researches. Great use is made by the medical profession of the country, and even by investigators from other countries, of the facilities here offered. The libraries of the State Department also contain unique material-more valuable to the special investigator than to the general student, who will, as a rule, find his needs better met in the Library of Congress. The various military and naval records in the libraries of the departments at Washington also possess an importance to the student of history which is wholly disproportionate to their bulk. But, on the whole, it may be said that most of the departmental libraries are arranged, and should be arranged, with primary reference to the needs of the administrative force of the several departments, and that the work of the outside investigator can be better cared for in the Library of Congress, which is arranged with a view to his needs and purposes, than in any departmental library, however complete.

This is not intended as a criticism on the administration of departmental libraries. They are, as a rule, handled generously as well as efficiently. There is an evident desire on the part of those in charge to have the books used by persons outside of the department as well as inside. But most of the government bureaus receive large numbers of books and pamphlets which they find it hard to take care of, and harder still to arrange to utilize.

The Bureau of Education has been a special sufferer under this difficulty, and has taken practical and efficient measures to remedy it. In his statement to the Secretary of the Interior for the year ending June 30, 1908, the Commissioner of Education says:

Under the direction of the new chief of the library division, Mr. William Dawson Johnston, the library of the bureau has been thoroughly overhauled and reorganized. The first task here was to strip the collection down to its most effective working basis by the removal of all books and other matter no longer needed or suitable for the purposes of such a special library. The pieces so removed were transferred to the Library of Congress and the District library, under the provisions of the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriations act of February 25, 1903. The following statement shows the number of pieces so transferred: