Today, the controversy tearing the institution apart is initiated by a businessman, Lawrence M. Small, the former president of Fannie Mae. As the institution's secretary, he is only the second non-scientist to lead it. He wants to close a number of Smithsonian units, but it is his proposed closing of the Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va., which is administratively part of the Smithsonian's National Zoo, that has enraged scientists the most and become the symbol of this era. This world-famous facility, devoted to saving endangered species whose plight grows more serious by the day, has long served as a training ground for many leading conservation scientists. Typical of the scientists' response were the words in a letter to Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., from Storrs Olson, senior ornithologist at the National Museum of Natural History.
Scholarship is no longer part of the equation.
The secretary wants people coming through the doors for blockbuster exhibits. That's his bottom line. That base commercialism seems to be the Smithsonian's future if these shabby trends are allowed to continue. For neither side was the good of the nation of any major interest. This most recent conflict over the country's pre-eminent cultural establishment is far from over.