The copper era and Morenci leader., 1912-12-20
NO PRIVATE WORK BY GOVERNMENT
 BIOLOGISTS
Members of the United States GeoIoqi- cal Survey Prohibited from Any Personal Interest in Mineral
 Properties-WarninQ
 Against lmpostors.

] The spirit of square deal' which
 now prevails in most Government busi-
 ness is illustrated by the manner in
 which the United States Geological
 Survey guards the data it obains and
 also withholds information from pri-
 vate persons until reports embodying such material can be published and
 offered free of cost to rich and poor
 alike.
 The law under which the United
 States Geological Survey was organiz-
 ed in 1879 expressly provides that the Director and members of the Survey
 shall have no personal or private in i tereSt in the lands or mineral wealth
 of the region under survey and shall
 execute no surveys or examinations
 for private parties or corporations.
 This was a wise provlsion; for on the
 one hand it insured that whatever ad-
 vantageS were to come from geologic
 work paid for by the people as a whole should be equally and simultaneously
 available to all, and, on the other hand
 it removed from the geologist what would otherwise have been strong and | frequent temptation to make his off cial work subordinate or contributory to his personal and material interests. So strictly is the regulation now inter preted that the Government geologists are prohibited from acquiring stock in any mining company operating in the United States. The result has been that the public in general has conf dence in the impartiality and integrity of the Federal geologists, and property owners willingly impart information to them which would be withheld from men who might use it for their own advantage. Even after resignation from the Survey geologist is in hon. or bound by a written promise not to act as an expert in mining litigation in any district that he may have in- veStigated while on the Survey, until three years shall have elapsed since his resignation or until ten years have passed since he made an official re- port on the district. It is supposed that after these periods of limitation the local information gained in his off cial capacity will have ceased to be of special advantage in current litigation. The confidence reposed by the pub lie in the Federal geolOgiSts has oc- casionally been abused by impostors who have claimed to belong to the Geological Survey Geologists who re- sign from the Survey of course are free to seek employment wherever the choose, but from the date of their designations they can no longer be em- ployed by the Survey nor can they rep resent it in any capacity unless rein stated or appointed from a civil ser vice register. The only apparent ex- ception to this regulation is that re- ports on certain subjects or certain fields may be purchased from geolo gists who have never been connected with the organization or who, though formerly employed by it, have resign ed to enter private work. In all cases however, the finished report is purchaS- ed and the geologist while gathering the materials for the report is acting in purely private capacity and does not in any sense represent the Govern ment.
 Should Beware of Impostors.
 Because persons sometimes misrep- resent themselves as employees of the Geological Survey for the purpose of securing inside information, the pub lie is advised to regard all representa- tions with caution and to insist that the person soliciting such information shall establish his identity and connec- tion with the Survey before complying with his request. This can easily be done, for each geologist or engineer connected with the organization IS furnished with card certifying to his position on the Survey, signed by the Secretary of the Interior and coun-