Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-04-29
THE SIGNAL SERVICE.
Senator MOrSan's Bill for its ReOrgan.
ixatiOn rs a Civil Bureau.

Mr. Morgan to-day introduced q bill in The
Senate to provide that on the LIST Of July, 1886
| the signal service bureau shall be abolished and
a bureau to be styled the weather bureau shall
be established, to which shall be transferred al
the records, equipments, etc., except arms and
other articles of military character. The
weather bureau shall be organized to prosecute
meteorological inquiries, ETC., as civil estab
lishment. and shall be under the control
of the Secretary OF War. He may assign the
present chief Of the signal service until he
shall otherwise order as chief director of the
weather bureau. and in like manner he may
assign the other commissioned military officers
now serving in the signal corps to such duties
in the weather bureau as he may deem proper
The military officers and the chief signal officer
every kind that they are now entitled to under
the laws regulating the signal service. The en-.
listed men, including the non-commissioned
officers, who are then serving in the signal
corps shall be discharged on the Both of June,
1886. They shall be entitled to preference
over other persons not in the signal service for
appointment in the weather bureau, to places
for which they are properly qualified, and il
not appointed by the 18th of July, 1886,
extra pay and allowance. In organizing the
weather bureau the Secretary OF War shall
assign the work to several appropriate divisions,
not exceeding ten. He shall appoint chief
clerk of the weather bureau, one stenographer,
five type-writers, five instrument ma
kers, five carpenters, and two tele.
ii
director. The chiefs of division and all subor.
dinates Of the bureau shall be appointed by the
Secretary of War. The President by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, shall ap-
point a chief director of the bureau and three
professors OF meteorology, one OF whom shall be
designated as assistant director.
The work of the bureau shall be arranged on
a basis of not exceeding one hundred and thir:
ty-five observing stations, including the central
station at Washington. to be supported by the
United States with as many auxiliary stations
as the states or institutions of learning may es-
tablish, whose observations may be received by
the weather bureau and used In making up
statistics and prOgnostics and reports OF the
weather, the expense OF transmission and
printing the same to be borne by the United
States under such rules and regulations as the
Secretary of War may prescribe. The annual
salaries of the officers and employees OF the bu'
reau, payable monthly, shall be as follows:
Chief director, $4,000; assistant director,
81, 500: professors ofmeteoroogy, each, 81 900;
chief clerk, 81, 500; stenographer, $4,000; tele-
graphers, each, $1,000; typewriters 600; in-
strument makers, 81 $780, carpenters, 81 400;
director of printing, 81 500; printers and bind
ers class 2, 800; printers and binders, class
81 400; chief of division, 81 600: clerks, class
S1,eoo; clerks, class 2 81 900; clerks, class l,
81 200; observers, 81. 500; assistant observers.
$1,000; skilled laborers, 81 200; ordinary Ia
borers, 5000; messengers, 81 200.
Observers and assistants when on remote sta
tons may be allowed additional pay not ex.
ceeding $50 month. No more than actual
travelling expenses shall be allowed for persons
travelling in the service of the bureau. ANY
observer, or other emplOye, who shall leave MS
station without perm lssion, or refuse or negleci
to obey the orders of the Secretary OF War shall
be guilty of a misdemeanOr, and on conviction
in the courts OF the District of Columbia or The
United States courts of states or territories snail
be fined not exceeding $780, and be imprls-
Oned not exceeding six months. The Dill was
eferred to the join3 commission on the scientific
bureaus