Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

A NATIONAL NEED . . . A NATIONAL HUMILIATION 47
Maddox of Georgia rose to say: "I do not know anything about the bill.
If I understood it, or if it was possible for me to understand it * * * might
be in favor of it. I want to. know what it will cost." Southard explained.
Mr. Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois, who as "Uncle Joe Cannon" was to be the
long.time autocratic Speaker of the House (1903—11) but was then Chair-
man of the House Appropriations Comthittee, proved characteristically
forthright: "I don't think there ought to be any [such) bureau organized."
But Mr. John F. Shafroth of Colorado, who had objected earlier to the idea
of another bureau in the Government, spoke up again, saying he had changed
his mind. Perhaps moved by the reading in the House of a telegram from
Carl Hering of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers ("National
humiliation not to have own standards"), he declared: "There is a new
creation * * * of measure and of standards in the world * * * [The bill)
is a measure which this Government should have passed long ago." 76 He
was for it, and he was in the majority.
"To meet all possible objections in the amended bill," the House
accepted the Senate salary and expense changes and on March 3, 1901, the
bill was enacted into law (31 Stat. 1449), to take effect on July 1. The
functions and responsibilities of the bureau as originally described in Sec-
retary Gage's letter remained unchanged, but instead of "National Stand-
ardizing Bureau," the name by law became the "National Bureau of
Standards."
In 1903 when the Bureau was transferred from the Treasury to the
new Department of Commerce and Labor, the word "National" was elimi-
nated from the name at the direction of the new department chief. No reason
was given but it was said the change was made because the word "National"
was inconsistent with the titles of such similar bureaus as the Coast and Geo-
detic Survey and the Geological Survey. Thirty years later, in 1934, as the
proliferation of "bureaus of standards" in State governments, chambers of
commerce, and even department stores threatened total ioss of identity of the
Federal agency, the original name was restored.78
Dr. Frank A. Wolff remembered it, "Speaker Cannon, the then watchdog of the
Treasury, though [later] a friend of the Bureau, HAD to oppose it. In his speech he
ridiculed the idea of a $250,000 building to house 14 men." Speech, 25th anniversary of
the NBS, Dec. 4, 1926.
Congressional Record, Mar. 2, 1901, pp. 3476—3477.
Ibid., pp. 3472—3473.
Memo, Secretary of Commerce for Director, NBS, Apr. 27, 1934 (NBS Box 370,
AG) ; Science, 78, 453 (1934); interview with Dr. Lyman J. Briggs, Nov. 1, 1961.