Evening star., 1899-03-13
Alleged Encroachments in the De-
partment Of Agriculture.
PROTEST 10 THE SECRETAR,
UnwanantabIe innovations Declared
to Have Been Made.
DETAILS OF THE CHARGE

troll.
Its purpose is to call the attention of the
Secretary to the fact that the Office of ex
pertinent stations is encroachng in various
ways upon the sphere and the work of the
scientific bureaus. 1t revives a complaint
which was made to the Secretary by indi
vidual scientists at the time the former
took Office and remedial action suggested
by the Secretary having failed of it's pur-
pose, the encroachments have continued,
and now every scientific bureau is involved.
The complaints are not arrayed against
Secretary Wilson or Director True of the
office of experiment stations personally,
and their object is only to obtain correction
of conditions which seriously impair the
value and extensions of the departments
scientific work.
Under the act of Congress constituting
and organizing the Department of Agricul-
tIre, bureaus of chemistry, botany and en-
tomology were specifically formed to con-
duct original scientific research and inVeS-
tgation as the department might need this
done.
Authority was given thu Secretary to
create at any other time such other scien-
t!hc bureaus as might be necessary, and
the heads of these were to receive the
same compensation paid to men engaged in
similar lines of work in other parts of the
country.
AS time passed the then commissioner,
Norman l. Coleman, established a system
OF experiment stations in the states, and
also created, upon the advice of the heads
OF the original scientific bureaus, AN office
OF experiment stations within the depart
ment.
The purpose was that this office should
collect, prepare and edit the reports and
other data obtained from the stations
There was no variation from this policy
Tor number of years, and that office
never attempted original scientific work or
held itself out as being in any regard equip
ped for the purpose.
A Gradual Change.
With the advent of A. C. True as direc-
tor, succeeding Prof Atwater, change
gradually occurred, and at the present
time the complaining scientists allege his
office is not only collecting and editing ex-
pertinent data, but Is also diverting to itself
work and credit that belong properly to
their bureaus
1tem1zing their grounds for complaint the
first is that the office of experiment sta
tons has assumed proportions that appear
10 be superior to that of the department
nselt that the creation is growing great ter
than its creator, and that it is euuippjng
Itself IN exact duplication cf the organiSa-
ton OF the department proper possessing
Dotanlst an entomoogist, a physicist a
lists.
Upon the latter point It is shown that the
once mas sent an entomologist to Alaska
u
upon ITS face comes properly within the
scope of another bureau of the department.
Continuing, the complaint is made tnat
the Office of experiment stations EMPLOYS
men upon this work who do not have prop
er supervision, and that it has issued bull
letlnS from time to time upon subjects
which We're then undergoing investigation
by the other scientific bureaus and that ia
some instances at least the former have
had to be withdrawn, and, in one of these
cases, repudiated because of the incorrect
data they confirmed; that it has succeeded
in diyert!ng congressional appropriations
to itself which formerly have been given
to the other bureaus which are charged
under the organic act with such work
Irrigation and Nutrition.
An instance of this diversion is shown in
connection with the appropriation for the
study of irrigation. Involved in this are
large questions which require profound
knowledge of chemistry and soil physics
and botany. Chemistry. because of the ne
cessity of determining the character of the
soils and the water and it's adaptability to
the soils and botany as to the proper vege-
table growths that may be planted upon
the irrigated area, and soil physics because
OF the necessity to learn the adaptability
OF the SOILS to the purpose intended.
In spite of this. hoUey it is asserted
the office of experiment stations is direct
ing the Investigations and receiving the ap-
preparation for this inquiry. Therefor it
work of three of the scientific bureaus is
encroached upon and their usefulness di-
minished in proportion.
The same state of things is observed in
connection with the long-continued investi-
CATION of the subject of nutrition This al
most purely chemical question is now re-
ceavinS the attention of the office of experi-
ment stations, and the Secretary will be
shown that Its conclusions and bulletins
upon the subject contain many inaccuracies
OF Statements and grave Observation-Disclosures
of facts.
The Secretary will be Informed that the
director of the Office is no more competent
TO supervise and direct the scientific work
which he has entered upon than its scien-
tifc chiefs.
II will be stated that his experience was
largely pedag0gic in nature and that he is
not qualified thereby to determine the in
accuracy of the data which under the con-
tract system he has inaugurated is renorted
TO MIN and bulletined. His attention will
be directed to the fact that the director of
the office complained of receives larger
compensation and greater opportunities for
public recognition than is allowed to any
OF his colleagues
Recent Innovation.
The complainants show in this connection
that recently Director True obtained from
the Secretary an order that all communica-
tions addressed by the heads of the other
scientific bureaus to the experiment sta
tioiS dii eCl Siiouiu be StuI llTSC TO director
True, who was empowered to revise and
transmit them.
This upsets wholly the long followed sys-
tenn of direct communication between the
experiment stations and the scientific men
of the department, and 1t is considered as
impeding and obstructing the latter in the
pursuit of their inquiries. The argument
is advanced that Director True's system of
independently employing experiment station
chiefs upon governmental work as distinct
from the state work upon which they are
employed and paid by the state works an
injustice well to the state as to the gov
ernment.
The scientists say in substance that the
agent Of the chief is bound to shrk the
work of one or the other, and that 1t is not
the purpose of Congress that the state
shall be caused to suffer or that one man
shall be paid both by the state and the ma
tional government.
Scientific Bureaus Fully Euuipped.
The protest will also respectfully submit
the opinion that the scientific bureaus are
fully equipped and competent to make all
the original inquiries the department may
require, and that in the matter of collabo-
rations with the Office of experiment sta
tions or any other similar branch of the de-
partment the scientific bureaus should be