George Otis Smith

Smith, the Geologist-in-charge of the Section of Petrography of the Geologic Branch, succeeded Walcott as Director in May 1907 and continued as Director until December 1930. Smith had joined the Survey after receiving his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1896, and he was barely 36 years old when he was appointed Director. 

Smith’s Survey career had not been particularly distinguished, but he came to the attention of the new Secretary of the Interior, James R. Garfield, in 1906 when Smith had served as chairman of one of the subcommittees of a Presidential commission that sought to put the operation of government agencies on a modern businesslike basis. 

A combination of circumstances ensured that the work of the Survey for many years did indeed become primarily practical. For the first 20 years of Smith's leadership, appropriations were essentially static while funds from outside sources steadily increased, especially for the topographic mapping and water-resources programs, which were largely practical in nature. The classification program was extended as the Roosevelt conservation program developed but Congress steadfastly refused to appropriate additional funds for the new form of classification. 

The classification program was only part of the Survey's involvement in the rapidly developing Roosevelt conservation program. An Inland Waterways Commission, appointed in March 1907 to prepare a comprehensive plan for use of inland waters, in the fall of 1907 suggested a Conference of Governors at the White House to dramatize the need for conservation. From the Governors Conference in May 1908 came the National Conservation Commission that in the record time of 5 months, with the aid of Government scientific agencies including the Geological Survey, prepared an inventory of natural resources, containing not only estimates but predictions of times of exhaustion of various mineral resources.

World War I reoriented conventional views on mineral resources. When the war began in August 1914, it was assumed that the conflict would last but a short time. The United States was believed to lack a known supply commensurate with its needs of only five minerals of first rank--tin, nickel, platinum, nitrates, and potash. On the other hand, the reserves of mineral fuels and iron were regarded as so enormous that no problems would arise. The Geological Survey, however, immediately increased its geologic mapping to aid the discovery of new oil fields or extension of known fields, but of the five scarce minerals actively sought only potash. 

When the United States entered the war in April 1917, the Geological Survey was almost wholly on a war basis. 

During the war years, the Survey sought intensively for deposits of war minerals at home and, in time, extended the search to Central and South America and the West Indies. The results were highly successful; adequate supplies of all essential materials were found before the war's end. The Geological Survey also became the main source of information on mineral production, both domestic and foreign, and its data were used to solve a variety of industrial and transportation problems. Personnel from the Survey's Division of Mineral Resources worked in close cooperation with statisticians of the Fuel Administration established after passage of the Lever Act. Geological Survey engineers also undertook a nationwide survey to determine where waterpower could be substituted for steam-generated power or where coal could be saved by interconnecting electric plants or systems.

The postwar shortages convinced Congress that it was necessary to open up the public mineral lands to development. In February 1920, the Mineral Leasing Act was passed. Under the terms of that act, mineral lands were to be leased by competitive bidding, and royalties and other income were to be divided between the Federal Government and the States. The Survey's responsibility for classification of mineral lands was again changed; its major task became the determination of the known geological structure of producing oil or gas fields within which oil and gas leases would be issued. 

Another postwar problem that demanded action was the lack of maps. Nearly 60 percent of the country was still totally unmapped, and much that had been mapped was in need of resurvey. Professional organizations urged the President and Congress to make provision for completing the topographic map of the United States in the shortest possible time compatible with requisite accuracy. The Survey proposed a plan whereby the mapping could be effectively and economically completed by 1932, but no funds were made available to inaugurate the plan. 

Despite the loss of scientists to industry, the Survey under Chief Geologists David White and Walter C. Mendenhall, who succeeded him in 1922, devoted a major effort to energy minerals. Research was begun on the source materials of petroleum, the physical properties of reservoir rocks, microfaunas as aids to the identification and correlations of beds, and salt-dome caprocks. Survey physicists and chemists joined the effort by developing improved recovery techniques and by laboratory and field tests of geophysical methods of exploration. In addition, geologic mapping for classification purposes and mapping of potential oil areas was continued, especially in Wyoming, where there was some oil company interest, and in Montana, where only the Survey had done any detailed work. In 1923, the Survey extended its intensive study of possible oil-bearing areas to Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 on the Arctic Coast of Alaska. The Survey's long-range stratigraphic correlation studies also became a contribution valued by industry in its exploration for petroleum.

The Survey once more became involved in regulatory functions in 1925, when the Bureau of Mines, which had had responsibility for supervising mineral lease operations on the public lands since passage of the Mineral Leasing Act in 1920, was transferred to the Department of Commerce, and the Department of the Interior delegated that responsibility to the Geological Survey. The Land Classification Branch was renamed the Conservation Branch and its responsibilities were described as classification of lands according to their highest use; the protection of the public interest in undeveloped mineral, waterpower, and agricultural resources; and the promotion of economical and efficient development of mineral deposits on public and Indian lands. The regulatory functions, which were quite different from any previous Geological Survey responsibilities, required a large force of mining and petroleum engineers who increased the Geological Survey staff to more than 1,000 employees, of whom only 126 were geologists.

For its 50th year, the Survey had an appropriation of \$2 million and available total funds of \$3.4 million. It had 998 permanent employees and was conducting mapping and investigations in 45 States, Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. Nearly 44 percent of the continental United States exclusive of Alaska had been topographically mapped. Streamflow was being measured at 2,238 gaging stations; income from mineral leases, licenses, and prospecting permits on the public lands under Survey supervision was \$4.1 million.