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want to know, as a mere formality, how he discovered that there is no rela-
tion between weather and earthquakes . . . the Controller's competency to
decide the matter being universally recognized.” 62 this was just the kind
of political control over scientific research that American scientists of the
Progressive era could not abide. 63
Finally, in 1914, Congress reversed the 1911 decision and approved the
Weather Bureau's bid to nationalize seismological research. Branner wrote
a relieved letter to C. F. Marvin at the bureau: “I should tell you frankly that
I have hitherto found the english language quite inadequate to express my
indignation at the attitude of Congress toward the Weather Bureau's work
on earthquakes. . . . You can count on the cordial support of intelligent
people out here, I am sure. . . . I think you are quite right to begin with
non-instrumental reports. I am confident that the results will be well worth
while. Instruments are too expensive to undertake in the early part of the
work.” 64
the cooperatives had won the day. each of the more than four thousand
volunteer observers across the nation was furnished with cards for report-
ing ground movement, to be collected by their regional section directors.
Farmworkers and women were still well represented among the coopera-
tives, as in the late nineteenth century. the Weather Bureau hoped that
an instrument would soon be available that could “easily be cared for by
inexperienced individuals and that will give a trustworthy measure of the
intensity of local shocks.” Such an instrument, however, was “more or less
completely unavailable at the present time.” 65 Felt reports were thus the
bureau's priority. In California, 167 cooperative observers agreed to begin
reporting earthquakes to the bureau in 1915, in addition to the twelve regu-
lar weather stations.
their reports went to Andrew Palmer, chief of the San Francisco office
of the Weather Bureau. Despite the disruptions of the war, the number of
cooperatives participating reached 350 by 1919. 66 Palmer vouched for the
integrity of these volunteers. “As it is recognized that psychological factors
play an important part in the recording of sensible earthquakes, the char-
acter of the observers deserves special consideration.” Palmer praised the
cooperatives in the terms traditionally used at the bureau: “nearly all of
these observers render both climatological and seismological reports with-
out compensation, and this fact alone indicates their interest in and capac-
ity for the work. Actuated largely by public spirit, these observers are almost
without exception leading citizens in the various communities which they
represent. Furthermore, the care required in the daily meteorological obser-
vations is a form of discipline which soon makes one exercise good judg-
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