LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, November 30, 1908.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report prepared by President Hadley, of Yale University, on the facilities for advanced study and research in the offices of the National Government at Washington, and to recommend its publication as a number of the Bulletin of the Bureau of Education.

Especial interest attaches to this publication, and I am confident that it will be widely useful. It sets forth, in compact form, information which has frequently been sought by institutions and individuals engaged in scientific research, both in our own land and in foreign lands. In particular, it will answer numerous inquiries which arise in the graduate departments of our American universities. The question has been asked repeatedly in the course of the collection of materials for this number, whether it is intended to have some bearing upon the effort to secure the establishment at Washington of a National University. It seems proper accordingly to make the following statement: That this publication is intended merely to convey accurate information concerning a matter of the highest educational interest, and not to serve as an argument, either pro or con, in any special propaganda. Its immediate purpose is to furnish information to advanced students and directors of research. It is inevitable that it should have an important bearing upon any discussions which may be had in the immediate future touching the establishment of a National University, but it is my intention that its part in any such discussion shall be simply that of a source of reliable information.

In pursuance of this purpose, President Hadley in his editorial comment has limited himself to such guarded reference to the National University movement as seemed necessary to the completeness of his brief survey of the materials offered. This definition of the nonpartisan purpose of the publication, with which President Hadley is in full accord, is the only limitation which was proposed when the collected materials were placed in his hands for editorial arrangement and review.

The thanks of this office are due and are extended with all heartiness to those offices of the Government which have furnished the information which is here summarized. Every department and every independent office of the Government which was invited by the Secretary of the Interior to furnish such information has responded without exception. As a result the account here presented offers, so far as I am informed, the most complete survey that has ever been made of the facilities for research under governmental control provided at our national capital. Without such cooperation the undertaking would have been altogether impracticable. It is fitting to add that the personal interest and attention which you have given to the undertaking have greatly facilitated the gathering of the information which is here set forth.

Very respectfully,

The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN,
Commissioner.

FACILITIES FOR STUDY AND RESEARCH IN THE OFFICES OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AT WASHINGTON.

BRIEF HISTORY.

From the very beginning the United States Government has been called upon to provide facilities for advanced study and scientific research, and has shown itself active in meeting these demands.

In the year 1800, when the seat of Government was established at Washington, provision was at once made for establishing a library of Congress, under the direct control of the United States authorities, which should be the best institution of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. In spite of two fires-one in 1814 and the other in 1851-by which the collections of books were destroyed or greatly impaired, these intentions have been consistently realized. The Library of Congress is not only the largest collection of books in the country; it is, of all the large libraries in the world, the one whose collections are made most readily available for the scientific investigator of every grade. More than once in the history of the institution the question has arisen whether the Library of Congress should be treated as a circulating library for the casual reader or as a reference library for the serious student, and the answer has been in favor of the latter principle.

Simultaneously with the establishment of the Library at the beginning of the last century there was a recognition of the scientific importance of the census, of the probable necessity of government investigations in American ethnology, and of the need for the establishment of an adequate coast survey. In the year 1800 the American Philosophical Society, under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, presented a memorial to Congress stating that "the decennial census offered an occasion of great value for ascertaining sundry facts highly important to society and not otherwise to be obtained," and praying that this object might be held in view in taking the next census. A similar memorial was presented by the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences during the same year. Six years later the project of a coast survey was taken up by Secretary Gallatin and received the sanction of law in 1807.

The results of these early endeavors were not wholly satisfactory. The war with Great Britain and the political and material developments which followed it turned men's minds in other directions. Though the census schedules were somewhat enlarged, the methods employed were faulty and the results obtained were of little value until after 1830. The work of the Coast Survey during these years, in spite of the ability of its superintendent, Mr. Hassler, was scarcely more effective. But about 1840 there was a revival of scientific interest and scientific activity on the part of the Government which led to the accomplishment of large results. The census of 1840 showed a distinct improvement over its predecessors, and that of 1850 was a work of great positive value. The Coast Survey was reorganized in 1843 under the headship of Professor Bache, and its work was pushed with vigor and success. The Naval Observatory, established in 1842 under the title of "A Depot of Charts and Instruments for the Navy," gradually developed into a scientific institution of the first rank. The establishment of the Smithsonian Institution in 1846, by which the leading members of the United States Government became responsible for the administration of a large trust for the increase and diffusion of knowledge, marked another step in the direction of public encouragement of research.

After the year 1850 scientific interests at Washington were again somewhat crowded out by political ones. The good work of the institutions just described was continued, but few new ones were established (if we except the Weather Bureau, the Hydrographic Office, and certain specific surveys of importance) until after the close of the reconstruction period.

The organization of the United States Geological Survey in 1879 can perhaps be taken as marking the beginning of a new era. This era, which has continued to the present time, has been characterized by the gradual development and coordination of technical bureaus. and technical researches in a large number of different linesbiological, chemical, and industrial. Starting usually on a small scale, as auxiliaries of the operations of some department of the Government, these bureaus have acquired independent importance, and have been so organized as to facilitate their development as separate institutions instead of subordinating it to the administrative needs of the department in which they originated. The investigations dealing with biology and chemistry, wherever they may have originated, have tended to go into the charge of the Department of Agriculture. The investigations in industrial and statistical science, wherever they have originated, have similarly gravitated toward the Department of Commerce and Labor. Under the Department of Agriculture we now find the Weather Bureau, the Bureau of Animal Industry, the