Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-13
SCIENTISTS AT WAR.
Charges Made Against the Geological
Survey and its Director.

Survey and its Director.
PROF. COPE xAKrs A DIRECT ATTACK o. ,AyoR
POWELL AND PROF. MARsH-MAJoR POWELL Q
METHODS cRITIcrsED-MAJoR PowxLL's RE-
PLH-PRoF. COPE SAID TO BE INsRrnxD BY
JEALOUSY.
The New York Herald yesterday published q
long article making charges against Maj. J. W..
Powell, director Of the geological survey, and
Prof. o. G. Marsh Of Yale college, the verte-
brate paleontologist of the survey. These
charges were based mainly on q statement of
Prof. E. D. Cope of the University of Pennsyl-
vania, supported by letters in Prot. Cope's pos
session. Interviews are published with Prof.
W. B. Scott, the geologist of Princeton college,
and DR.. Persifer Frazer Of the Franklin insti-
tute, Philadelphia, each supporting allegations
from q long criticism Of the survey and its
methods made by DR.. F. M. Endlich, geologist
THE CHARGES tie .
as summarized by the Herald are as follows:
1T is charged that the geological survey has
become, through the exertions and ambitions
of Maj. Powell, its present director, gigantic
political methods, and SO unwieldly in Its oper-
atoms that it has got beyond the control OF its
official head.
Director Powell and Prof. Marsh are charged
with having schemed to get the latter elected
president of the National academy Of sciences
in order to use that important institution for
their mutual purposes. 1t is asserted that the
academy and survey have since acted harmoni-
ously upon all subjects in which they were
mutually concerned, even to the extent that
cut and dried reports have been prepared by
the committees of the academy booming the
survey and its directors before Congress.
I'm consideration of the prestige given to the
survey by the fact that Prof. Marsh Is one Of
the faculty OF Yale college it is claimed that
Director Powell has allowed Prof. Marsh TO
store immense government collections at the
college, where they are inaccessible to visiting
scientists and nearly every one else, and have
become mixed with the Yale collections in such
a way that it is almost impossible to separate
them.
1T is charged that various scientific works
purporting to have been prepared by Prof.
Marsh and which have been published by the
government as his were not original with the
Yale professor. but are in part the work OF his
assistants and in part collection ofplagmrisnis.
Maj. Powell is charged with knowing this,
also with having himself plagiarized and dupli-
Gated the work of various state BIOLOGISTS and
past government surveys.
Moreover, it is claimed that to help manip-
ulate appropriations and secure other favorable
| action from Congress the geological survey has
been made an asylum for CongressmeDs sons
that sinecures have been given to Journalists
TO suppress criticism and secure newspaper
support, and that government pap has been fed
out to college professors and other scientific
men in order to disarm them of any feelings
of hostility they might entertain toward Di-
rector Powell and the institution under his
charge" "a. -
SCIENTISTS WHO CAN GIVE EVIDENCE.
SIT is asserted vigorously the Herald says,
80,
men high in power, that Maj. John W. Powell.
director of the survey, and Prof. Marsh, its
principal salaried officer, are partners i'll in
competency, ignorance and plagiarism, and
these are some Of the scientists who are in a
position to offer evidence to that effect:
professor E. d Cope, chair Of geology and
palaontology, University OF Pennsylvania Pro-
lessor S. ". Williston, chair of anatomy, Yale
college; Professor w. b. Scott, chair of geo.
logy. Princeton college; Professor Henry F.
Osborn, chair of biology, Princeton college;
DIR. Otto Meyer, Phi. d. DR.. NJ. Schlosser, Phi. D.
DR.. L. H. Barber, B.A.; DR.. J. B. Hatcher,
PHI. B.; DR.. F. NJ. Endhch of the United States
geological survey under DIR. Hayden and a
distinguished mining expert; Professor N. H.
Winchell, chair Of geology. University OF Min
nesOta, and state geOlOglst; Professor Eugene
Smith, state geologist OF Alabama; Professor c.
Hart Merriam, Agricultural department., WASH
ington; ex-member of Congress A. j. Warner,
institute, Philadelphia; Thomas Wilson, Smith
sonian Institution. Washington, and George NJ.
Wheeler, U.S.A. Incidentally Professors W. H.
Flower of the British museum; Albert Gaudry
of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris; L. Rutimeyer
Of the Univerity of Basic, Switzerland, and
Karl Z:ttel, University Of Munich, have written
certain testimony.
CONTROLLING THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. y
'One of the first acts Of Major Powell and
Prof. Marsh" says the Herald article, twas to
get practical control of this academy for their
mutual uses. AS many as possible Of the staff
of the geological survey we're elected members
and many members of the academy were given
pap in the survey. By these means Prof.
Marsh has been retained at the hoad Of the
society. All questions relating to the survey
that Congress has referred to the academy
have been controlled by Prof. Marsh. who APP
pointed committees with majorities composed
of members of the survey, such committees
reporting as instructed by Marsh and Powell.
When the question Of a consolidation of the
scientific departments Of the government came
before the academy its subsidized committee
rendered a cut and dried report by which the
geological survey was made more powerful
rather than curtailed. When the academy was
ordered to investigate in connection with q
| committee of Congress the geological survey,
| friends and members of the survey were put
on the committee appointed by Marsh, and
| again the survey profted.
"In all matters 80 requiring Prof. Marsh has
| SO far as possible. given to Major Powell the
| prestige Of Yale college, and that has formed
no small backing for Powelrs schemes. In
consideration, therefore, Powell has allowed
Marsh to store vast government collections, al
Yale college, where they are locked away from
| the people and no one is allowed to See them
| not even visiting scientists. These collections
have increased enormously and fill all the spare
| cellars of the college, besides spare rooms be.
| longing to the professor. 1t is stated On the
| authority of those who know that they have
become so mixed with collections which really
belong to the college that it would be difficult
to separate them. For the purpose of increas
| ing these collections Prof. Marsh has been al
lowed 100000 per year by Powell and salary
| of "a 600.
| DESTROYING SPECIMENS.
"As a result it is alleged that Marsh has sem
out large field collecting parties into the terri
tories, which were instructed to gather every
thing of use to the survey and break all speci
mems which it was unnecessary to bring east il
| order that other scientists should not have
them. or, rather, should not be able to antici
| pate the work Of the survey. Besides breaking
specimens and destroying the possibility of any
| competition in the requirement of knowledge
| Professor Marsh is now charged with retaining
the salaries of members OF his field parties.
| But the most astounding charge agains
| Professor Marsh is that all Of the work purport
ing to be his, published by the government
is not his own, but in part that Of his employees
the remainder being collection of plagiarisms
or course, on the principle that the principal II
responsible for the agent, the scandal Of all o.
Marsh's doings falls jointly upon Ma