y of production. We thus had the curious spectacle of the
government supporting two independent surveys of the same region.
Various compromises were attempted, but they all came to nothing.
The state of things was clear enough to Congress, but the repugnance
of our national legislature to the adoption of decisive measures of
any sort for the settlement of a disputed administrative question
prevented any effective action. Infant bureaus may quarrel with each
other and eat up the paternal substance, but the parent cannot make
up his mind to starve them outright, or even to chastise them into
a spirit of conciliation. Unable to decide between them, Congress
for some years pursued the policy of supporting both surveys.

The credit for introducing a measure which would certainly lead to
unification is due to Mr. A. S. Hewitt, of New York, then a member
of the Committee on Appropriations. He proposed to refer the whole
subject to the National Academy of Sciences. His committee accepted
his view, and a clause was inserted in the Sundry Civil Bill of June
30, 1878, requiring the academy at its next meeting to take the matter
into consideration and report to Congress "as soon thereafter as may
be practicable, a plan for surveying and mapping the territory of
the United States on such general system as will, in their judgment,
secure the best results at the least possible cost."

Several of the older and more conservative members of the academy
objected that this question was not one of science or art, with
which alone the academy was competent to deal, but was a purely
administrative question which Congress should settle for itself.
They feared that the academy would be drawn into the arena of
political discussion to an extent detrimental to its future and
welfare and usefulness. Whether the exception was or was not well
taken, it was felt that the academy, the creature of Congress, could
not join issue with the latter as to its functions, nor should an
opportunity of rendering a great service to the government be lost
for such a reason as this.

The plan reported by the academy was radical and comprehensive.
It proposed to abolish all the existing surveys of the territories
except those which, being temporary, were completing their work,
and to substitute for them a single organization which would include
the surveys of the public lands in its scope. The interior work
of the Coast and Geodetic Survey was included in t