Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-05-03
0le Eai,fostfr Jntelliqenfer.
LANCASTER. MAY 3, 1856
CestIy and Frultless.

The House committee which has been
looking into the working of the scientific
bureaus Of the government, has prepared
it, report upon the coast survey, and the
geological departments. 1t finds the con-
dition Of things which we have learned to
deem inseparsble from government pursuit
of scientific inquiry; namely, that it is a
never-ending and very costly chase with
very poor results. The coast survey has
been in progress since the beginning of
the century, and has expended twenty-four
millions Of dollars without having CON-
pleted the first survey of the coast line.
The practical good that it has accom-
plished is very small in proportion to the
promise and the effort. Inland surveys
have been going on, which have much puz-
zled the unsophisticated country folk
among whom they were prosecuted, to
know their meaning and utility; and they
have been taken on faith, as the demand of
science beyond the ordinary ken. The
bills of our own county bear the decaying
timbers of towers which bore the coast
survey instruments a few years ago; and
the House committee finds that these topo-
graphical inquiries have cost us the pretty
sum Of $3.50 per square mile.
The geological survey has been a still
greater absorber Of the nations cash !;
although a much younger institution
than the coast survey, it has already
taken sixty-eight millions of dollars.
1t has mapped out very wide scheme of
research, and engages the services, beside
its exclusive force, of some sixty-nine sci
entific gentlemen who are employed in like
work by states, individuals and colleges.
1t publishes elaborate reports about every
thing remotely related to geology and
generally at remote periods from the
investigation that is recorded. Their
staleness is one of the most marked
features of the government re
ports. Discoveries made and theories
framed by the scientific reporters find thei
way to the public in the ordinary avenues
of communication, several years before tn,
government reports are printed. And thi
lack of freshness in their disclosures is on
great reason why there is no demand 70
them though there exists another goo,
reason in the fact of their free distribution
by congressman. The committee finds tha
the sales of the geological reports whicl
cost sixty-eight millions have amounted I,
s1,543.l0.
1t recommends that the scope of the in
quiry be cut down and that the survey be
confined to the making of geological map
and the collection of geological specimens
which seems to be wise recommendation.
Scientific gentlemen may naturally be re,
gardless of the value of dollar and when
they get hold of the government pay theiI
recklessness of expenditure becomes marvel.
lous. They always think that theirlabors are
of inestimable value, and the consideration
of their cost wholly unworthy of them, as
the agents of a great government seeking
great truths. We have experience of this
in our state as well as in our nation. When
our geological survey is completed, the
remote generation that sees it done, and
views the acres of reports, will know more
than we do, perhaps, of the geology of the
state but not much.