Thomas G. Manning - Government in Science: The U.S. Geological Survey, 1867–1894

GOVERNMENT IN SCIENCE

Thomas G. Manning

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am under heavy obligation to historians, scientists, and other professional people. An acceptable manuscript could never have been presented for publication without their assistance, which was so freely given. I have tried to remember all whose knowledge and advice were drawn upon, and I hope that I have not forgotten anyone. First there are the historians: Samuel Flagg Bemis, Harold Dean Cater, William Culp Darrah, Hunter Dupree, Francis P. Farquhar, Bob Ferrell, Ralph Gabriel, Bill Goetzmann, John Higham, Oliver W. Holmes, Tom LeDuc, Dick Lowitt, Ed Lurie, Otis Marston, Stow Persons, George Pierson, David Potter, J. Eugene Smith, Wallace Stegner, and M. M. Vance. Then come the scientists: Henry R. Aldrich, H. M. Bannerman, Bob Beringer, W. H. Bradley, Richard Flint, the Adolph Knopfs, Chester Longwell, the late W. C. Mendenhall, Thomas B. Nolan, W. T. Pecora, John Rodgers, A. S. Romer, William W. Rubey, Julian Sears, Al Wade, and the late W. E. Wrather. At Texas Technological College, where the book was written, I consulted with Tod Baker, Sterling Fuller, Larry Graves, Alan Gunn, Keneth Kinnamon, J. T. McCullen, Otto Nelson, Ben Newcomb, Alan Strout, Idris Traylor, and David Welborn. Several others should certainly be recognized: Mrs. George F. Becker, Carroll Bowen, Agnes Creagh, Marjorie Downing, Frank Forrester, David Horne, Savoie Lottinville, Mrs. George P. Merrill, and Sidney S. Walcott.

The American Council of Learned Societies, the Geological Society of America, and the Department of History, Yale University, helped me financially. The Library of Congress, the library of the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Archives, the Sterling Memorial Library, the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and the library at Texas Technological College were the major locations for my research. I was well received at all these places. Other institutions which made my work easier were: the Minnesota Historical Society, the State Historical Society in Wisconsin, the Nevada State Historical Society, the Michigan State Historical Society, the Hayes Memorial Library, the Huntington Library, the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, the Hartford Public High School, Illinois College, the Milner Library at Illinois State Normal University, and the University of Rochester library. For secretarial services I remember Anne ONeal, Jeanette Stewart, the late Katherine Barnes, Mrs. Syrian E. Marbut, and Jane Rodman. Mrs. Bob Parker of Lubbock, Texas, typed the final manuscript. Ellis Buckner, also of Lubbock, consented to read galley and page proof with me.

I am indebted to the U.S. Geological Survey for the four maps in this book. Bob Moravetz and Melvin Hanes of the Publications Division in Washington asked Jack Hopkins of the Survey office in Lexington, Kentucky, to arrange for the drafting of these maps.

CONTENTS

MAPS

INTRODUCTION

The history of the United States Geological Survey concerns knowledge and research, how they developed, and how they were involved in legislation and politics during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The origins of the Survey date from the period after 1865 when the federal government became more important than the states in sponsoring the study of geology, paleontology, and topography. Scientific surveys operating in the trans-Mississippi West did the research, and they introduced almost every program which later was prominent in the Geological Survey proper.

The pattern of the research and the returns from it are primary themes in this history. The Survey and the explorations in the West which preceded it exploited the new field of physical geology, which was almost an American innovation. Clarence King, the Surveys first director, established a continuous and effective connection with the mining industry through economic geology. Under the directorship of John Wesley Powell, the Survey accumulated topographical knowledge at a rapid pace, through plans for a national map. Advances also were made in vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology. Theorizing flourished as knowledge developed and its emphasis shifted. Scientists sought to explain the origin of ore deposits, to define the stages of erosion, and to understand the equilibrium of the geological strata on the earths surface. The great theoretical issue of geoscience in the last quarter of the nineteenth century was the rate of physical change in geological time, and geologists of the Survey supported the idea of uniform change on the earths surface, past and present. They also speculated about the proper balance between fact-gathering and theorizing in the method of competent scientists.

The Geological Survey was an impressive force in government science, because its research harmonized with general historical trends of post-Civil War Americawestward expansion, the rise of industry, the extension of federal power, and urbanization. The favorable position of the Survey in American history determined the nature of its politics, as periodically Congress felt drawn to investigate so new and so thriving a bureau. When the legislature intervened, it pressed against those segments of the Surveys research which scientists themselves had made controversial. The result was that the politicians either sanctioned the Survey work done or limited its activity by redesigning the research program. The first phase of this bureaucratic growth and congressional challenge reached a climax in 1879 when the U.S. Geological Survey was founded, 10 or 12 years after several geological surveys had been established in western territories. The competition between these surveys antagonized Congress, which, even as it organized the unified Survey, reduced the scope and cost of the science involved. At this time the issue was not simply the emphasis of the research or its extent, but there was also considerable disagreement about the person and group to control the new bureau. The Survey soon broke down the legislative restrictions of 1879. It came east across the Mississippi River in 1882, collaborated with the older states, and resumed most of the research which had been abandoned in 1879. Then in the mid-eighties came the reaction, now almost a forgotten chapter in the history of the bureau. Cleveland Democrats, inspired by a laissez-faire ideology, proposed a broad reduction in federal research, arguing it was inappropriate and too expensive. Some government science suffered, but the Survey was vindicated in all its policies since 1879. Even more important, the bureau was recognized as a permanent scientific establishment.

There was a widening application of Survey knowledge to American life at the end of the decade and into the nineties. Through activity which would be incongruous for the present-day Survey, geologists fought successfully for the integrity of Yellowstone Park. Then during a study of irrigation prospects beyond the one hundredth meridian, J. W. Powell, the second director, sought reform through scientific knowledge, as he tried to direct westward migration into a new type of community. The irrigation survey was the great disaster of the nineteenth-century bureau. Scientists were divided bitterly over the emphasis topographical knowledge should have in such a survey, and a score of western senators were offended deeply when the public land system was threatened with suspension, while the government classified the irrigable land. In 1892, after the demise of the irrigation studies, the western senators took their revenge, joining Cleveland supporters opposed to government science. Senators and representatives especially attacked Survey projects in paleontology. As a result, the bureau entered a brief period of decline.