by the government. The endowment of astronomical observatories devoted
to research, and not including that given for teaching, is estimated to
amount to half a million dollars annually. Several of the larger
observatories have an annual income of fifty thousand dollars.

[1] Commencement address at Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland,
May 27, 1909.

I once asked the wisest man I know, what was the reason for this
difference. He said that it was probably because astronomy appealed to
the imagination. A practical man, who has spent all his life in his
counting room or mill, is sometimes deeply impressed with the vast
distances and grandeur of the problems of astronomy, and the very
remoteness and difficulty of studying the stars attract him.

My object in calling your attention to this matter is the hope that what
I have to say of the organization of astronomy may prove of use to those
interested in other branches of science, and that it may lead to placing
them on the footing they should hold. My arguments apply with almost
equal force to physics, to chemistry, and in fact to almost every branch
of physical or natural science, in which knowledge may be advanced by
observation or experiment.

The practical value of astronomy in the past is easily established.
Without it, international commerce on a large scale would have been
impossible. Without the aid of astronomy, accurate boundaries of large
tracts of land could not have been defined and standard time would have
been impossible. The work of the early astronomers was eminently
practical, and appealed at once to every one. This work has now been
finished. We can compute the positions of the stars for years, almost