The times., 1901-05-26
SCIENCE IN THE PRESENT
Its Interests to Be Advanced I'm
der American Auspices.
A Representation to BE Made Be
fore the Forthcoming Conference
In INSTRUMENTATION Similar to
the Smithsonian Advocated.

of furthering the scientific interests OF
the various nations on this continent at
the International Conference of States,
which will convene at the City OF Mexico
on October %, 1901. The formation of the
committee, which numbers on its ad-
visory board such eminent Government
scientists as Prof. w McGee, of the
Bureau of Ethnology, and DR.. Henry
Gannett, of the Geological Survey, is the
work of Mrs. Aron Morley Wilcox, whose
plan is the result of long and studious
observation and a deep appreciation OF
the intimate relation existing between the
researches of pure science and the COM
mercial and educational prosperity of a
nation.
The Pan-American Committee will urge
the advisability of the establishment un-
der the various Governments on this hem
isphere of institutions similar to our own
Smithsonian and the scientific branches
of our Government service which have
been the outgrowth, directly or indirectly,
of that unique and splendid object lesson
of the practical utility and benefit of
scientific investigation and research. An
influential member of the committee,
when interviewed by reporter regarding
the purposes of the organization, said:
while the po.tico-economic phase of
Pan-American unity and progress has
constituted the inspiration and scope Of
the forthcoming conference, the subtler
and less apparent but none the less valu-
able scientific interests of the various
Western nations outside the United States
have been, it is believed. practically neg
lected. And yet it will be acknowledged
by all rejecting minds that science has
attained too eminent a position in the
present age in all directions of human
progress to be safely ignored. There can
scarcely be instanced a single CONNER
cial or political issue to which scientific
principles may not be applied, and in
which the results of scientific investiGa-
ton and research may not be utilized
1T is still the dream of the ideal states
man to found the art of government on
the basis of an exact science, and to re-
quire, in those who are entrusted with the
management of a nation, complete
knowledge of those delicate laws by which
organized society exists, or may be made
to exist, in a harmonious and happy State.
To descend to more concrete examples, 1t
is readily seen how geology and mining
interests go hand in hand; how the manu-
facturer is indebted to the chemist for
the means by which his wares have been
invented OF perfected. The archaeologist
and anthropologist, though apparently
pursuing lines of thought remote from
the practical issues of the present, have
rendered inestimable service to this Gov
ernment in the classification of the In
dians, while the system of irrigation
which is converting the arid lands of the
Southwest into fruitful and productive
regions was suggested to the investiga-
tors of the Bureau of Ethnology by the
remains of similar works of prehistoric
peoples in those localities-this system,
employed in time, would have prevented
the fearful famine in India which is year
ly sweeping away hundreds of thousands
of lives.
THE intimate relation between scienti-
fic investigation and commercial progress
is constantly becoming more prominently
recognized by the Government of the
United States, which mas already profited
enormously by a timely acknowledgement
of the fact. The Agricultural Department
has grown rapidly from a mere bureau
into a vast national institution, having
for it's chief a Cabinet officer, and re-
quiring an annual appropriation of sever
al millions of dollars. The work of this
department is purely scientific, but direct
" benefits every individual farmer and
stock raiser, and hence promotes TO an
immense and ever increasing degree the
prosperity of American agriculture.
THE department is one of the Off
springs of the Smithsonian Institution,
with which it's principal bureaus, the
Weather Bureau, as one instance, were
once connected. The Bureau of Forestry
of this department has lately, by recon-
mending to the Government the purchas-
ing and setting apart vast tracts Of wood
land in various sections of the country,
thus preventing floods and aridity in
those sections, appealed strongly to popu-
lar appreciation. Thanks TO the labors
Of the Fish Commission the fisheries of
the United States have been saved from
depletion, and have. in the case OF many
varieties of fish, been enabled to increase
in value. Apart, however, from the di-
rect relation of scientific labors and in
vestigation to the material prosperity of
nation, there is TO be taken into con-
sideration the Intellectual development
which must result to a people from any
movement toward scientific education and
Improvement.
such q movement, and such result
must inevitably, apart from Government
cooperation and evidences of material
DenenI, exert a ftle& lliuENce on the
dignity and power of country through
the enlightenment of it's citizens. 1t was
perhaps. with the latter object solely in
view that the Smithsonian Institution
was founded at Washington by the be-
quest of James Smithson. This Govern
ment proceeded to utilize to the utmost
the opportunities for advancement afford
ed ii by this noble institution, and the re-
suit has been the establishment, under
Federal auspices, of scientific branches
some Of which, as for instance, the Agri-
cultural Department and the Bureau Of
EthnolOgy, are unique, not only among
the countries on this Continent, but in
the world.
'"The ideal of every scientific institution
or movement lies in unity and centraliza-
ton for IL is only by comparing and COM
nected researches and a close relation and
constant interchange with other similar
institutions that really valuable results
may be obtained While a vast amount
of work has been and is being done in OBJ
tanning a geological, anthropological. and
archaeological knowledge of Central and
South America, such labors have been
either individual In their nature or con-
fined to scattered exploring parties. The
data thus collected exists in such discon-
nected form as to be almost useless for
practical purposes. Unlike the attempt to
attain the North Pole where a definite
goal is to be reached, Central and South
American research must be extended over
an immense area which, in many places
the foot of white man has never trod
But to the scientist what n superb
field is here offered for every line of In
Vestigation. To the archaeologist and an
thrOpologist there are the remains of q
race whose architectural works. in their
similarity to the Egyptian and Asiatic
present one of those fascinating problems,
the solution of which will involve the
most valuable and far-reachinec results
The wealth of alluvial deposits has only
been superficially investigated, and that
chiefly at the instance of commercial