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John Wesley Powell : Science and Reform in a Positive Context

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John Wesley Powell : Science and Reform in a Positive Context AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF John Joseph Zernel for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in General Science (Physical Science) presented on March 15, 1983. Title: JOHN WESLEY POWELL: SCIENCE AND REFORM IN A POSITIVE CONTEXT. Redacted for Privacy Abstract approved: ' Robert J. Iris, Jr. John Wesley Powell worked actively for public land system reform while a director of geographical and geological surveys in the West from 1869 to 1894. Although this has won him acclaim as a conservationist, the basis of Powell's linkage of reform with scientific work is poorly understood. A study of the intellectual aspects of Powell's survey work to about 1884 shows his linkage of science and reform had both practi- cal and philosophical foundations. While working in the West Powell found applications of his geological and ethnological studies useful in treating problems that had arisen for settlement in the region. Powell's study of Indian culture reflected ethnologist Lewis Henry Morgan's emphasis on social organization. It taught Powell that the government's approach to Indian problems was ineffective because it misunderstood their social organization and their institutions. Powell emphasized physical aspects of the geological problems he studied. He focused on structure, on processes of upheaval and erosion, and on the historical record those agencies left in topography. Powell found this work provided geographical and other physical information useful in planning the large-scaleirrigation systems that he believed were necessary for continued growth in the West. He also found his survey's work valuable for administrative and policy-making needs in the General Land Office. Powell's Report on the Lands of the Arid Region in 1878 reflected his advocacy of better and more systematic methods in classifying andsurveying the public lands. It also keynoted his involvement in efforts to abolish the government's contract landsurvey system and replace it with a permanent system of geographical and geologicalsurveys. Philosophical foundations for Powell's involvement in reform are revealed in his ideas on evolution. These combined L. H. Morgan's appreciation of cooperative social institutionswith Herbert Spencer's view of evolution as an increasing differentiation and integration of matter. Human evolution for Powell was multi- dimensional and included intellectual, industrial, and institutional elements. Powell believed his survey's work for science and for land system reform was consistent with his evolutionary scheme. His intellectual heritage shows that he was acting out the commitmentof nineteenth-century positivism to the empirical methods of science and to their use in achieving social progress. Copyright by John Joseph Zernel March 15, 1983 All Rights Reserved John Wesley Powell: Science and Reform in a Positive Context by John Joseph Zernel A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Commencement June 1983 APPROVED: Redacted for Privacy Associate rr lessor or une rij.story or science in Charge of Major Redacted for Privacy Chairman of Department of General Science Redacted for Privacy Dean of Gradua School Date thesis is presented March 15, 1983 Typed by Leona M. Nicholson for John Joseph Zernel In Memory of JAMES F. LAHEY Scientist ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The dissertation presented here is both the culmination ofan academic program and a milepost in a longer-running attempt tomove beyond the limitations of a first-chosen career. That anything has been accomplished in either sense is due in very largemeasure to the efforts of Dr. Robert J. Morris, Jr. and Dr. Paul L. Farber, faculty in the Department of General Science at Oregon State University, who introduced me to the history and philosophy of science. In so doing, these gentlemen presented me the means to extricate myself from certain conceptual problems related to the function and value of science in society and to move ahead withmy career objectives. Moreover, whatever I have been able to accomplish in outgrowing the limitations of an earlier, narrowly technical education is largely a result of the breadth of interests, critical thinking, and patience these men brought to their teaching. In undertaking and carrying out the research presented in this volume I am indebted to many individuals and institutions. I was fortunate, first of all, to be introduced to the meaning and nature of science by the late Dr. James F. Lahey, climatologist in the Department of Geography at Oregon State University. The aims and philosophical perspectives Dr. Lahey brought to his research were exemplary models of physical science practice that have servedme as well in my historical studies as they were intended to serve in science. The example of Dr. Lahey's research in the disciplinary context of geography was also important in prompting my first forays into the historical background of the earth sciences in the late nineteenth-century America. I have been fortunate to have in Dr. Morris a research advisor who combined patience and a willingness to provide free rein, both of which I needed to distill a manageable research problemout of a complex of suspicions and dimly perceived ideas. Moreover, to whatever extent this dissertation represents clear thought, clear expression, and critical thinking, it does so ata considerably higher level than it would have without the standards set by Dr. Morris. Other members of my committee have also helped to make this thesis something more than it otherwise might have been. Drs. Paul Farber and J. Brookes Spencer in the Department of General Science, William G. Robbins in the Department of History, Robert E. Frenkel in the Department of Geography, Wilbur A. Davis in the Department of Anthropology, and William W. Chilcote in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology all helped to save me from ambiguity anderror. Dr. Farber deserves special mention for helping me with nineteenth- century evolution theory and social philosophy, and both he and Dr. Spencer helped me to refine and sharpen my thesis arguments. I am also specially indebted to Dr. Robbins for preventing me from straying into deep water in the history of the public domain. The services provided me by Mrs. Doris Tilles and her staff in the Interlibrary Loan Office at the university's Kerr Librarywere indispensable to the successful completion of this work. No less important was the free access I was given to the collections of federal documents in the State Library at Salem, Oregon. Materials in the National Archives at Washington, D.C. were important, especially in the early stages of my research, and I am indebted to the staff there for their research assistance. The Department, of General Science provided funds to help cover photocopying expenses. I am especially grateful to the staff of the Willamette University Library in Salem, Oregon, for providing me the use of their facilities during the writing of this thesis. A few maple- bars was a small price to pay for such a great convenience. Special thanks go as well to Leona Nicholson for her labors in typing the manuscript under less-than-ideal circumstances. Finally, I wish to express my appreciation to my wife, our parents, and our friends for their patience, encouragement, and moral support. No one could ask for greater support than I have received from my wife, Nancy. This project could not have been completed without it. Scarcely less can be said of the patience and support given by our parents. The encouragement of more than a dozen great friends was also important and very much appreciated; thanks especially to Mike and Patty. TABLE OF CONTENTS MAP CHAPTER ONE. J. W. POWELL: REFORMER AND SCIENTIST 1 TWO. PHYSIOGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY 23 THREE. ETHNOLOGY: A SCIENCE OF MAN 63 FOUR. IRRIGATION: AN ENGINEERING PERSPECTIVE 86 FIVE. PHYSICS AND POLITICS. A NEW GEOGRAPHY OF THE WEST 109 SIX. A PROPER SCIENTIFIC SURVEY 148 SEVEN. EVOLUTION AND HUMAN PROGRESS 184 EIGHT. THE POSITIVE CONTEXT OF SCIENCE AND REFORM 225 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 240 MAP. Scene of survey operations by John Wesley Powell, 1869-1879. JOHN WESLEY POWELL: SCIENCE AND REFORM IN A POSITIVE CONTEXT CHAPTER ONE J. W. POWELL: REFORMER AND SCIENTIST John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) has become a familiar figure in American history through his role in shaping the early structure and operations of the United States Geological Survey and particularly for his involvement in the great land system reform efforts that began early in the 1870s and spanned nearly twentyyears. In 1878 as head of the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, Powell published the Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, his seminal description of the physical geography of the western public lands and the problems their distinctive 1 characteristics posed for the existing land disposal system. Soon afterward to help provide a foundation for a proper land system, Powell worked actively and prominently to establisha permanent geographical and geological survey of the public lands, the result being the establishment of the United States Geological Survey in 1879. As its second director from 1881 to 1894 Powell initiated the survey's broad and continuing economic assessment of the nation's lands and resources as part of a program of national geological and topographical mapping. In 1888 these efforts were expanded with the 1 U. S. Congress, House, Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, with a More Detailed Account of the Lands of Utah, by J. W. Powell, Ex. Dec. 73, 45th Cong., 2nd sess., 1878. 2 authorization of the Irrigation Survey. Caught up in controversies of land system reform, the Irrigation Surveywas terminated by Congress in 1890, and Powell was driven from office. The work left a legacy of men and ideas, nevertheless, that soon bore fruit in the Progressive conservation movement.
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