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��THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY
��THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE
��SCIENTIFIC APP0INTEMNT8 UN DEB THE GOVERN- MENT
A SCIENTIFIC journal must avoid the discussion of party politics, but it is legitimate to point out that the two leading parties have adopted plat- forms which, as far as their principles go, might almost be interchanged, and have nominated candidates who have much in common, both of them being lawyers, university professors and sons of clergymen. In view of these circumstances it is of interest to those concerned with science that Mr. Hughes in his first campaign speeches should select as one of his two leading issues the appointments by President Wilson to scientific offices under the government. This would not have been a vital political issue a few years ago, and it is certainly gratifying that it should now have become so, more especially as both parties and both candidates profess the same desirable principles and only dispute about the extent to which they have been main- tained.
In opening his campaign at Detroit, Mr. Hughes charged the administration with having displaced the scientific heads of the census and of the coast and geodetic survey with men not hav- ing scientific qualifications. The word "displaced" is ambiguous and was perhaps intended to be so, and the re- ply of the secretary of commerce that both men had ** voluntarily retired" is also, and it may be purposely, am- biguous. Men familiar with university affairs, like the two candidates for the presidency, know that professors some- times have their resignations presented to them. It is allowable to say either that Dr. Wilson displaced Dr. Patten as president of Princeton University or
��that Dr. Patten resigned and was suc- ceeded by Dr. Wilson. As a matter of fact, Dr. Durand's reBignation as di- rector of the census was forced, and Dr. Tittman, who was sixty-five years old and in indifferent health, resigned vol- untarily from the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
The vulnerable point in the action of the administration is the appointment of their successors. Mr. William J. Harris, appointed director of the cen- sus, was chairman of the democratic state committee of Georgia and the ap- pointment appears to have been for po- litical reasons, as has unfortunately so often happened in the bureau of the census, where the extension of civil service rules has been least adequate. E. Lester Jones, when appointed super- intendent of the coast and geodetic survey to succeed Dr. Tittman, was de])uty commissioner of fisheries. His appointment to that office and his pro- motion to the head of the survey in the fame department appear to have been personal rather than political. He has proved to be an efficient executive, but his appointment to both offices certainly violated the principle that these posi- tions should be held by experts.
It can not, however, be denied that there are two sides to this question. Under modern conditions a distin- guished man of science is likely to be a good executive, but the number of scientific men available for a position of this character is limited, and it is by no means certain that it is desirable to divert the skilled expert from his re- search work to an executive position. Another solution of the problem would be to make the heads of bureaus purely administrative officers, to be filled by men used to administrative work, but for the scientific policy of the bureau
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