New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-01-14
OLD PROBABILITIES.

Our readers doubtless noted with satlsfac
ton in last Fridays TRIBUNE the official let
ter from the international Congress of Geo
graphical Sciences, convened in Paris in 1875,
to Gen. Albert j. Myer, stating that the Signal
Service of the United States Government has
proved to be so remarkably organized, and the
cause of such progress in meteorological science,
that no distinction provided by the regulations
of the Congress was deemed commensurate for
it. This especial letter of distinction was
therefore sent, and no doubt surprised
good many honest folk who have been in the
habit of daily consulting Old Probabilities be-
fore they set out on journey or ordered the
family wash, but who had very vague idea
as to the uses or work of the Service outside
of those half dozen oracular lines in the morn
ing paper. Except from scientific men, who
know tho importance of the Service, this
prophet has had but little honor in his own
country. No branch of Government work
perhaps is so thoroughly and economically car
ried on, while it is tho only one which may be
said to exist on sufferance from year to year.
There are now 10S stations in this country,
the Observcr-sergeants in which are regularly
drilled soldiers educated for this especial
service in Fort Whipple, Va. Besides tri-
daily reports from each station, the Bureau at
Washington receives 1913 daily reports from OBJ
servers who were under control of tho Smith
sonian Institution for twenty -four years In adj
dtion to these again are 1913 reports from the
army medical corps, and pa cable kilograms
from almost every country in Europe, making
total of LOLA daily reports received in
Washington. From these are drawn and pub
ishcd nine daily charts giving view of the
general mcteOric condition, besides monthly and
yearly charts, whose unparalleled service to
science the International Congress has just
commended from the daily reports are
drawn the forecasts of the weather and APP
preaching storms by which the Service is best
known. Forecasts intended especially for the
benefit of farmers are issued, and the average
time clapsing from the moment when the tele-
gram leaves the central office to its appearance
as a printed bulletin in every post-ofice where
there a. an agricultural population from Maine
to Florida is only ten hours. In 1874 the
number Of farmers bulletins issued was 6,2s6;
the entire sowing and reaping of tho country
may be said to have been directed by them.
In the same way transportation on our canals
has been regulated for years during the
Winter months by tho especial forecasts.
made for the benefit of shippers, of the
freezing Of the canals; from the daily reports
of the rise and fall of our great river high
ways warnings have been given of every APP
preaching food and in the Mississippi Valley
alone during the great floods of the last two
years a vast amount of property was saved by
this means which could have been saved by no
other. The most apparent benefit of this
service however, is in the cautonary signals
displayed in the lake and seacoast harbors OF
approaching storms. Violent gales are thus
foretold, and an incalcufabe amount of human
life and property saved, when the warning
could not possibly have been otherwise given.
Ii il time for this department of Govern
ment Service to be put on a permanent basis.
Its cost is trifng compared with its benefit to
the commercial and personal interests of the
people. As it is now controlled, the pay of
its enlisted men is inferior to that of other
enlisted soldiers, and there is no promotion or
egalized reward possible to its most faithful
officers, or encouragement To continue in a field
of duty which demands an exceptional amount
of education, physical endurance, and patient,
untiring integrity of purpose.