Washington, D.C. July 5th. 1884.

My Dear Marsh;

I am surprised if Senator Hawley drop the matter as
would seem to be indicated by his answer to your dispatch. After
I telegraphed you I was rather glad that your dispatch would be
too late because the safest course was to leave the matter to
the Committee of Conference instead of risking an adverse vote in
the Senate. So I supposed that Hawley would have the readiness
to do was simply to refer your telegram to Mr. Allison, or Mr.
Hale. I hope he did so. The result is in doubt, but I suppose it
will be decided today and that we shall know tomorrow. However I
am greatly obliged for your intervention and it is well to know
just how willing the Navy is to have its management looked into.

Professor O.C.Marsh,

New Haven,

Conn?

Washington July 26, 1884

My Dear Marah;

I have been hoping to hear from
you about the committee for some days, and so am glad to get your
letter. I now suppose the committee is to be as follows:- Meigs,
Comstock, Abbot, Trowbridge, Newcomb, Hall, Langley, Pickering,
Walker. The name I am not sure of is Abbot's. Hall is a great fel-
low for declining and sticking to it, so I am afraid you will not
get him.

You speak about Megs's sensitiveness about naval influence at
the observatory; this would mean that he is afraid of such influ-
ence, but I take it you mean the contrary. My idea is that our
best course might be not to allude to any proposal to change the
naval observatory; but to point out the desirableness of a nation-
al institution of the kind. But I will see what Powell and or others
think on the point before making up my mind.

Nautical Almanac Office.

Bureau of Navigation Navy Department.

Washington Sept. 19th. 18 34.

My Dear Marsh,

Today I received a message from Secretary C<sup>H</sup>andler asking me to confer with him before proceeding to act on the Academy Committee. He explained to me that he considered that the said committee was sitting in judgment on the policy of his department in desiring that the Coast Survey should be transferred to it. He thought this was a position which no officer of the department ought to take, no matter what his views might be, and therefore desired that I should withdraw from the committee, which of course I did. The fact is, I am, on some accounts, a little relieved to be off of it, in view of the possibility that the committee might make recommendations which would be considered as pointing in some way at or suggested by me. I have sent a note to General Meigs asking him whether it is desirable that the vacancy shall be filled and if it is I will add that suggestion in a telegram which I expect to send you.

From the way the Secretary talks it is evident that there will be a fight over the report next winter. He claims that the Congressional Commission has abdicated its functions in referring the matter to the Academy in the way it has done.

You know he is a very outspoken man and unless the conclusions are entirely favorable to his views he will not fail to show up everything he can think of, pretty much as Humphries and the War Department did in 1873-75. If the report were upon a matter which his department had in charge such opposition would no doubt be fatal but under the actual circumstances it may be as ineffective as the old one we had to face. I ought to say that he spoke in the kindest way of scientific men, and of the Academy, for all of whom he had a great admiration but he did not think that the Academy was a department of the government to perform the work of the Congressional Commission.

Of course Hall could not serve under these circumstances and I am inclined to think you might as well leave the vacancy unfilled considering that the committee will get the matter into pretty good shape before the ninth man could take his seat.

Yours very truly,

Prof. O. C. Marsh,

New Haven,
Conn.

Nautical Almanac Office.

Washington Oct. 3rd, 1944.

My Dear Marsh;

I am very glad that you are safe back. I do not know
whether our Surveys Committee have finished their report and I
would like to know if you intend to submit it to the Academy at
Newport. If not, I do not see that there is any special necessity
for me being present at the meeting. I have undertaken some new
duties at the Johns Hopkins University which makes it a very busy
month for me and although I would like to see Newport very much,
I am averse to taking the time if no good is to result therefrom.
But if you seriously want me I will come at all hazards.

That is the question from the Treasury Department seems
to me a very simple matter so far as we are concerned and I will
communicate with Brush giving him my views. It seems to me a silly
question to submit to the Academy and I cannot imagine how it
could have arisen.

Yours very truly,
S. Newmuth

Prof. O.C.Marsh,
New Haven,
Conn.

Nautical Almanac Office.

Washington, November 16th 1834

My Dear Marsh;-

Glad to get your letter. Had you been within reach I would have invited you to a little celebration of our good luck in being delivered from the prospect of four years of Blaine. Some of our friends are afraid that Cleveland's veto of the State Survey indicates a general opposition to scientific works but I have entire confidence to the contrary.

The Academy committee's report on the surveys has not yet com
out, but when it does appear you may expect to see Chandler and a
lot of others on the war path. C. is a plucky fellow, and does not
care how strong the odds against him are. The one vulnerable point
of the matter is that the report is not of the Academy, formally,
but only of a *committee* of the academy. This you may expect to see
harped upon ad nauseum. I had to call Abbe's attention that all
the Commission asked for was a committee report, but while this
fact will entirely justify your action in sending the report to the
Commission without the action of the academy upon it, it will not i
in any way strengthen the report.

The Watson medal matter is in Coffin's hands, I think, (possibly Hilgards) and our intention was to get it done by the mint at Philadelphia. We supposed, from all we could gather that the mint men would do it as well as any one this side of the water, and that the prices of the Paris man who made the Draper medal was above our means.

I suppose Brush told you that although I signad the report on Phil. Insts to save time, I was not satisfied with the conclusion that we could do nothing to enable the Treasury Dept to judge what especial kinds of insts were to be considered Philosophical. We have got to have a meeting of the committee, if possible, and Mr Hubbard understood that you were going to arrange for a meeting of the Science directors, either in N.Y. or New Haven. But I learn from Gilman that he cannot attend in either place at present. Still, I think he goes to N.Y. every few weeks, and that you could suit his convenience in the matter. I dont understand Barkers position in the matter at all. Did he tell you how he pitched into the report in a letter to me?

I did not know that King had returned. If he is still with you remember me to him, and tell him how he can find room 123, Na- vy Dept.

Nautical Almanac Office.

Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department.

Washington, November 30th/84

My Dear Marsh;-

From today's Herald (N.Y. Herald) it would seem that the Academy is in the way of getting one or more knocks from the Secretaries of War and of the Navy. If so I have it in mind to ask Chandlers permission to write him a frank letter on the work of the Academy, and its relations to the government, signing it as vice president of the Academy, and getting it published if he will permit it. But first I would like to know if you think such a course would be unadvisable. The general rule is that silence is the best policy. But this does not mean that one is never to speak, but only that he should speak so seldom that what he does say will be attended to. I think there is room for something to be said that will open the eyes of all concerned.

I had a lot of confidential, news from the Coast Survey yesterday. Unless there is an improvement immediately things must come to a crisis this very session, and this is what I do not want to happen, because I think the powers that now be would be sure to do what we do not want. So I have co-operated in a bold attempt to get something done which will lead to a temporary improvement at least. That is, if any improvement is possible in such a case.

I hope you will be here a good deal this winter for we may urgently
need your help at any moment. We want to be wise as serpents, but
not so harmless as doves. If we can get act_on staved off till af-
ter March 4th, I shall feel safe that nothing will be done without
due consideration.

Nautical Almanac Office.

Washington Dec. 5th. 1934.

My Dear Marsh,

Your letter received yesterday. On Monday after I wrote you Secretary Lincolns report came out and finding nothing in it on the subject of the transfer of the signal service I called at his office, mentioned the article in the Herald and inquired if he would favor me with an advanced copy of the paper alluded to in the Herald dispatch whenever it should be ready to be promulgated. He replied that the report was entirely without foundation as he considered that he had nothing to do with what a Congressional Committee chose to ask the National Academy of Sciences. Still his own opinion was that the question before the commission was only one of administration and not one of science or art.

When one of his own officers was asked to report upon the question whether his department or some other could best run the Signal Service then he would not submit. Had written to General Meigs pointing out the inadmissibility of the course pursued and received in return the information that the report had been finished and sent in. I rather enjoyed this though on the whole I am inclined to think the Secretary may be right so far as his own relations to the officers are concerned.

Washingtontom March 7th, 1935

My dear Marsh;-

I was in hopes you might turn up here about this time
but I have not heard anything to make me think you are coming.

It may be very important to us that the Commissioner of agriculture should be in thorough sympathy with the scientific movement; and I wish you would think how this might be brought about. If we could find a scientific man to take the place, we might easily fix it; but I suppose the best we can hope for is to get a good man of the political class who will work with us. Is there any way in which you could make our views in the matter known to the President? If he were imbued with them he might make his selection accordingly. I have not seen any name prominently mentioned yet, but I suppose there can be no doubt that a selection will soon be made.

The new Secretary of the Navy was introduced by the retiring one today, and the proceeding went off with the smoothness which marked the induction of the new administration in other points.
Chandler seemed to be the best pleased man of the crowd.

The Commission has given Powell such a chance as he never had before, and he has improved it. His worst enemy on the Commission can now hardly express his high opinion of the straightforward and masterly manner in which Powell handled the problem.

Yours very truly
Simon Newcomb

Nautical Almanac Office

Washington, April 29th, 1935.

My Dear Marsh;-

Professor Hall has sent me your letter asking for copies of Senate document 73, as he has none himself. I find the Department has none either, but an effort will be made to get them from the Senate document room when they will be forwarded to you.

Glad that you found President Barnard and that he is agreeable. I wish you could have heard our friend in the Coast Survey talk to Hall and myself yesterday. But perhaps it is as well you did not, because it might have destroyed your sleep.

Yours very truly,

Professor O.C.Marsh,

Yale College,

Conn.

Nautical Almanac Office.

Washington June 22, 1945.

My Dear Marsh;-

I have had some correspondence with Dr. Barnard in re-
ply to a number of questions he asked me about observatory organ-
izations here and abroad, but until I got your note did not know
he had written to the Navy Department. I suppose you know that I
am to sail in the Waesland on July 4th, I expect to be back either
on the 14 or the 20th, of September; expect to be in New York
on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week and would like to
know if there is any chance of my seeing you there.

I noticed that that reviewer in Science was a little
free in his remarks on some points, but in the main there was so
much of high appreciation in what he said that he did not give
the impression of having an account to settle. I have no idea
who he was as Scudder generally keeps such things absolutely
secret.

Yours very truly,
S. Newmarch

Professor O.C.Marsh,
Yale College,

Conn.

Nautical Almanac Office.
Bureau of Navigation Navy Department.
Washington, September 18th1965

My Dear Marsh:-

I got your letter on my return. Have been
too busy with my own work to see any one having special interest in
the Survey question, Powell being away on a tour of inspection, not
to return till the middle of October, so they say. Meanwhile there
is a daily flood of paragraphs not only about the C.S. but t e geo-
logical survey and the other scientific bureaus, showing a system-
atic attempt on the part of some newspaper men to to write them all
down. I intend to enclose you a slip from the Boston Advertiser,
which also appeared in the N.Y. Times of the 16th, with some sen-
sible editorial comments., It has already been contradicted both
by the auditor himself and the authorities at Yale, or at least by
your representative there, so you need not give yourself the least
trouble about the ma tter. So far I think our best policy is silene
at least till we see a chance to kill somebody. I would have gone
to ask the auditor about the matter, but Pilling told me yesterday
that he had done so and that there was nothing in the story.

It is said that the three most prominent candidates for the
C.S. are Gen D.C.Buell, Ex Lieut. Brooke, formerly of the Navy,
who seceded at the beginning of the war and has a good name as the
inventor of deep sea sounding apparatus, and Commander C.M.Colby

U.S.N. who has been in the C.S. office some years as hydrographic
Inspector I have also heard that my own name has been in some of
the papers, put I have not seen it since my return I should be
very much afraid to see Gould appointed for this reason; - He
would be appointed as a scientific man of eminence, and if he got
into hot water, as I fear he would, it would be urged by the A rmy
and Navy people as a proof that scientific men were unfit to be
charged with the management of affairs. We cannot afford to suppot
any one whom we do not feel reasonably confident will be a success
in every respect.

I have written to Hall to know if any local committee of ar-
rangements has been appointed for the Albany meeting, but have not
heard from him. At the moment I hardly know who ought to be ap-
pointed, as Hall, is almost the only member there that I can now
think of

I wish I knew when that article appeared in the Cincinnati
Gazette, I might look it up.

Yours very truly;

Simon Newcomb

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

THE REPORT PREPARED FOR
AUDITOR CHENOWITH.

The Alleged Collection of Fossils for
Museums of Private Parties—Salaries of
Fourth Class Postmasters.

SPECIAL DESPATCHES TO THE ADVERTISER.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15.—The report prepared at the request of First Auditor Chenowith upon the geological survey is an elaborate document. It contains a careful presentation of what is and what is not authorized by the law creating the survey and defining its works and duties. It also presents the limits covered by the various appropriation bills, and points out where these have been wholly ignored. The report takes strong ground against the legality of the immense expenditures for surveys in the old States. It holds that there is no authority for the arrangement made for furnishing the State of Massachusetts with a topographical map. Director Powell, of his own accord, entered into a contract with that State to make a new topographical map on a scale double that adopted for the other States, upon Massachusetts paying $40,000. The part paid out of the funds appropriated for the geological survey by Congress is about $65,000. The report charges that in violation of law, there have been many surveys of mines and mining traces owned by private parties. Surveys have also been prescribed outside of the United States for which no warrant of law exists. It is claimed that large collections of data have been made by various branches of the geological survey, which, instead of being deposited in the national museum, as the law directs, have been diverted, to the museums of private parties, notably to those of Professor Marsh of Yale College and Professor Cope of Philadelphia. The report states the cost, direct and indirect, to the government for making these collections to have been $50,000 for those held by Professor Marsh and $100,000 for those retained by Professor Cope. These were kept, in the first instance, under the plea that it was for the purpose of legitimate study preparatory to making reports, but this work is done so far as the material now referred to is concerned. The report shows that for the fiscal year of 1883 and 1884 the amount paid out for salaries was $112,000 in excess of the appropriation made for that specific object, while for the last fiscal year the appropriation for salaries reached $140,000. Much of the work is described as fragmentary, and a considerable portion is shown to be valueless.

Nautical Almanac Office,

Washington, D. C., Oct. 16th, 1955.

My Dear Marsh,

If you are as impatient for news on arriving home as I am, you will be glad to get the slips which I enclose. As I would like to have them back I have put them in an envelope addressed to myself which you can mail on your arrival. You may know that the position was verbally offered to Agassiz some three weeks before this correspondence, and he is said to have declined it in terms not all ambiguous. It is rather odd that the formal tender of the position was made some time after Agassiz's letter pitching into the Treasury investigation, which was re-printed in Science of September 18. Everything seemed to show that the report of the commission was an awfully one-sided affair. There is no change in the situation, and no indication as to whom they think of selecting as Superintendent.

Before Powell went out on his western trip he made a thorough inspection of his fences, and assured himself that they were in such perfect order that even Chenowith could not break through them. The result seems to have justified his confidence, for notwithstanding an enormous amount of lying on the

part of the newspapers, Chenowith seems to have given the matter
up., and reports the accounts all right. For comments on these
newspaper stories you can refer to Science for September 25th,
and October 9th.

I suppose you may have seen Agassiz letter which orig-
inally appeared in the Nation and Evening Post, If not you will
find it in Science of Sept. 18.

I suppose Baird must be in a good deal of trouble with
his fish commission accounts. I have not seen him however, and
do not know what grounds if any there is for the attacks upon
his assistant Ferguson. There seems to me a wide impression
however, that said Ferguson is not exactly the right man in the
right place.

I would not wonder if the effect of these newspaper
attacks upon government science generally should be seen in the
temper of Congress when it next meets. It would take a good time
for the distant Congressman to find out how utterly false the
attacks mostly are.

I have rented house 941 M street, north side, one door
east of 10th. If you come on to Washington, which I hope you will
do as soon as convenient, and arrive too late to come to my of-

Washington Oct 30th, 1885

My Dear Marsk;)

I don't know whether you, Agassiz and others who feel an interest in the matter know how the cat is going to jump in the matter of the Coast Survey etc, but I feel it in advance. I feel quite confident that the Navy will renew the effort to have the C.S. and a lot of other bureaus marine in their work turned over to it. The chances are that they will have the support both of the Secretary of the Navy and of the President. You see what the argument will be. Our experience shows the unwisdom of civilian management in such things, and the only remedy is to turn them over to the naval men who can be relied on to do better, and whose training makes them good administrators.

If all this meant merely managing the bureaus on civilian sys
tem, there might be no serious objection to it. But it of course
means placing the whole thing in responsible charge of Line offices
who will take the various places between their tours of sea duty.
Any one who wants to know how the thing would work has only to
make himself acquainted with the management of the observatory under
naval administration.

The great hitch in the way of my being selected for the C.S.
is connected with this very same matter. Very naturally, if the Presi-
dent wants to know whether I am the right sort of a man, he will
send over to the Navy Dept, and there he will get the opinion of
the Naval authorities on the subject. Possibly, he may have done
this already, as he said he would. We may be sure that the response
would not be enthusiastic under present circumstances, though it
might, and I think would, be couched in terms very friendly to my-
self. Altogether there is very little doubt that the President is
waiting to see if Congress cannot be induced to relieve him of all
necessity of making an appointment by turning the whole thing over
to Naval management.

I hope that Agassiz is going to be at the Academy meeting. He o-
ught to know how the case is likely to come up.