Excerpt from Report of the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Observatory 1899

During the following week the American Association for the Advance mentof Science met in Boston. Nearly a thousand members were pres ent, representing all departments of science. At a meeting of its council held August 25, 1898, a committee consisting of Edward C. Fickerin g, chairman; T. C. Mendenhall, president of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and R. S. Woodward, professor of mechanics in Columbia University, were appointed to cooperate with the committee of the Astrophysical Conference. The latter committee at once pre pared the circular given ih the Appendix (exhibit E), and sent copies to the leading astronomers of the country, whose names are given in the Appendix (exhibit F). A complete summary of the replies is given in the Appendix (exhibit G), the originals remaining with the secretary of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America. Sixty-one replies were received. Counting opinions materially qualified by expressions of doubt as only one-half, it appears that the Opinion was nearly unanimous that a change in organization is desirable (51 to that the entire direction should be intrusted to an astronomer (54 to that advancement should depend on efficiency rather than upon seniority (50 to and that avisiting committee should be appointed (43 to On the other hand, Opinion was nearly equally divided as to whether the Observatory should be transferred to another Department of the gov ern ment (19 to or whether certain branches should be separated from it (20 to It was emphasized in these replies that if an astronomer was made director he must be a man of marked executive ability, and that a visiting committee would be of little use if it had no power to enforce its recommendations. The majority of the committee of the American Association expressed the decided opinion that no change was likely to result in any decided improvement unless the Naval Observatory should be transferred from the Navy to some other Department of the Government. In this connection see Science IX, pages 409, 470.

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