(Witness: Page.)

That the work already done by the National Government along the lines indicated in the above-suggested remedies has not produced greater results is due to the fact that the appropriations have been small and the facilities necessarily limited. For several years after the establishment of the Office the appropriation remained in the neighborhood of $10,000 annually. The results achieved by this Office are much more than commensurate with the facilities provided by the appropriations of Congress, and have followed in general the procedure indicated in the remedies above stated.

That road building is as much an agricultural problem as anything connected with the cultivation of soil or the raising of stock can not be questioned. The transportation of the farm products has a more vital bearing upon the profits of the farmer than any other factor, because it absolutely governs the market for his products. If it is the purpose of Congress to promote the welfare of the rural population and through them add to the wealth and prosperity of the country, the question of transportation facilities should not be overlooked.

(The committee thereupon adjourned until Tuesday, January 29, 1907, at 10 o'clock a. m.)

BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY.

JANUARY 25, 1907.

AFTER RECESS.

STATEMENT OF DR. C. HART MERRIAM, BIOLOGIST AND CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

(The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.)

The CHAIRMAN. You are the head of the Bureau of Biological Survey?

Doctor MERRIAM. I am.

The CHAIRMAN. How long has that been a bureau?

Doctor MERRIAM. It has been a bureau for two years.

The CHAIRMAN. And have you been at the head of it all that time? Doctor MERRIAM. I have been at the head of it for twenty-two years since it was established as a division.

The CHAIRMAN. You were at the head of it at the time of its establishment?

Doctor MERRIAM. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. And have continued as the chief of the division, and are now the chief of the Bureau?

Doctor MERRIAM. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Why was it transformed from a division into a bureau?

Doctor MERRIAM. Because of the importance of the work and the fact that it comprised three different lines of work, each of which was equivalent to the ordinary departmental division of the other bureaus.

The CHAIRMAN. Were you able to increase the efficiency of the Bureau and do more work under the bureau form than under the division form?

Doctor MERRIAM. That is a difficult question to answer explicitly. Bureau organization increases the dignity of the service and puts the several branches of the work on a footing similar to that in other bureaus. Before, we were at a disadvantage, because our chiefs of division were merely chiefs of sections. The men who had charge of the three important lines of work were paid smaller salaries than men occupying corresponding positions in other bureaus and labored under the disadvantage of lower rank.

The CHAIRMAN. Did the Government get any more results in the line of units of work or service rendered after the change was made. from a division to a bureau?

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(Witness: Merriam.)

Doctor MERRIAM. I think it did.

The CHAIRMAN. How are they able to do more under a bureau organization than they were able to do under a division organization? Just explain what practical, concrete things they are able to accomplish now that they were not able to accomplish before. Of course that is not predicated upon any increase of force that you may have had or increase of duties that have been devolved upon you; but I predicate it upon the same amount of work; that is, with no additional duties imposed. I will predicate it upon the exact condition that exists. How are they able to accomplish more units of result under the bureau system than under the division system?

Doctor MERRIAM. We were enabled by the bureau rank to secure a more systematic and effective organization. Before that we had no units of organization similar to the units afforded by the bureau organization.

The CHAIRMAN. Give us a concrete illustration. You have a division in your Bureau?

Doctor MERRIAM. We have grown up from a single division- the division of economic ornithology and mammalogy by having other lines of work placed upon us by Congress.

The first was the Biological Survey. We were authorized to undertake a biological survey of the country in 1890. The work on the food habits of birds and mammals in relation to agriculture, horticulture, and forestry was what we started with. Superimposed on that was the biological survey element, which was added in 1890. Then, in 1900, when the Lac y Act went into effect, we were charged with the administration of Federal legislation relating to game, and were given administrative supervision of interstate traffic in game and the importation of animals and birds from foreign lands. Two years later we were given jurisdiction over the Alaska game law, and as game reservations have been established from time to time they also have been placed under our Bureau. So the scope of the work has been greatly increased. New duties have been put upon us, and we had grown from the division condition to the bureau condition long before we were recognized by name as a bureau.

The CHAIRMAN. That is just what I want to get at-the process and results of the evolution from the division condition to the bureau, with reference to results accomplished in the line of work done and to the value for the benefit of the service; that is, the value of the service rendered. Now, let me take one of your divisions. What is your leading division?

Doctor MERRIAM. We have three independent lines of work— geographic distribution, economic ornithology and mammalogy, and the last one imposed upon us, game preservation.

The CHAIRMAN. Let us take the geographic distribution. How many sections was that composed of before you changed from a division to a bureau?

Doctor MERRIAM. The work was carried on without any definite organization, in the same way that most of our work was carried on before, because we had not enough men to admit of a trenchant separation of the several lines of work.

The CHAIRMAN. Under the division system of administration, what did you call what is now the division of geographic distribution?

(Witness: Merriam.)

Doctor MERRIAM. We called it then, and call it now, investigations in the geographic distribution of animals and plants.

The CHAIRMAN. It is the same thing now that it was before; is it not?

Doctor MERRIAM. It is the same in its aims-in the kind of work it accomplishes-but it has a more efficient organization than it had before.

The CHAIRMAN. In what way?

Doctor MERRIAM. It has definite men assigned to definite tasks. It has a definite head, which it had not before.

The CHAIRMAN. Why could it not have had a definite head before, if it needed it?

Doctor MERRIAM. We were working on exceedingly limited appropriations, for which reason one man had to do more than one kind of work. This is true, also, to a considerable extent to-day.

The CHAIRMAN. All of that may be; but that does not prevent a proper executive organization, does it? That simply compels you to circumscribe your personnel.

Doctor MERRIAM. With a very small number of men, each doing two or three kinds of work, it is pretty hard to divide the work sharply by personnel.

The CHAIRMAN. How can you divide it any better under a bureau than you can divide it under a section?

Doctor MERRIAM. We had really almost a bureau organization before we were recognized as a bureau.

The CHAIRMAN. Then you had it pretty well systematized? Doctor MERRIAM. We had it pretty well systematized, but not so well as we have this past year, since we have had the bureau rank. The CHAIRMAN. I know; but the mere rank does not involve executive organization, does it-calling a thing by a different name and increasing the salary?

Doctor MERRIAM. Perhaps not; but it seems to me that it admits of a more efficient organization. We are certainly doing better work and doing the work in a more efficient way than we were a few years ago, before we had the bureau organization.

The CHAIRMAN. That is because it was not possible to have these heads that you now have?

Doctor MERRIAM. It was not practicable, and there were fewer of us to do the whole work.

The CHAIRMAN. Very true. But why was it not practicable to have the same heads, the same men looking out for separate and distinct investigations, prior to the bureau organization as it is now? What is there to it except having a man to look after a line of investigation, whether he is in a bureau or in a section or in a division? Where is the differentiation, so far as efficiency of results is concerned?

Doctor MERRIAM. I do not think of any hard-and-fast distinctions. A man works at a disadvantage when he feels that his position is a grade or two lower than that of corresponding positions in other Departments or in other branches of the same Department.

The CHAIRMAN. That is simply a question of compensation, is it not? Doctor MERRIAM. It is a question of compensation, and of rank and title also.

(Witness: Merriam.)

The CHAIRMAN. Of course the question of compensation is the substantial proposition to the man that receives it; but the question of title is more a matter, perhaps not altogether of sentiment but, perhaps, of morale of the Department; is that it?

Doctor MERRIAM. Perhaps so, in its effect, both in and out of the Department and on the man himself. A man and the work he is doing are placed at a disadvantage in the way they are looked upon by the public if they have not a rank coordinate with that of corresponding workers and prices of work elsewhere.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean by that that the public discredited your results when you were a division?

Doctor MERRIAM. No; they did not discredit the results, but they did not regard a man, personally, if they did not know him personally, as having so strong a position, as being so important a man, if he were chief of a section, for instance, as if he were chief of a division or chief of a bureau.

The CHAIRMAN. Then that comes down mainly to a question of sentiment and morale, does it not?

Doctor MERRIAM. Yes; I think it does.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there any substantial distinction between the division organization and the bureau organization, except the question of sentiment and morale and the increase of the salaries of some of your men on account of the change from one to the other?

Doctor MERRIAM. I think there is a distinction. In the kind of work that the Biological Survey is doing, each of the three different lines of work corresponds with the old division-that is, each branch independently is equivalent to the old-time division. When three of these were brought together we had three divisions instead of onein other words, something higher than a division.

THE CHAIRMAN. But what I want to know is, how those three divisions accomplish more in actual results, in concrete work, turning out inves iga ions, or whatever you do, under the bureau system than they did before. I want the physical result. Do I make myself plain?

Doctor MERRIAM. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. I want to get the physical result-whether there is any substan ial differen iation between the physical results attained under the bureau form of organization as con pared with the division form of organization, or whe her it is really substantially a question of morale and sen im ent and feeling on the part of the men of the Department and an increase of their salaries, so that they will be on a par wi h other men in other bureaus. Now, which is it?

Doctor MERRIAM. I think that when you bring three coordinate uni s toge her, each of them as large as the old division unit was, you have something bigger; that the three together constitute a unit of higher value, which in this case is the bureau unit.

The CHAIRMAN. That is a unit of higher value in organization? Doctor MERRIAM. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. But the unit of higher value in organization is of very little consequence to the Government unless, under that unit, more units of result are accomplished.

Doctor MERRIAM. I think you get greater efficiency by reason of a better organization and of a better feeling on the part of the men