Among other visitors were geologists, geodesists, and biologists of the Pacific Science Congress, held in the spring of 1920. These included H. E. Gregory, Griffith Taylor, Frederick Wood-Jones, William Bowie, T. W. Vaughan, E. O. Hovey, E. C. Andrews, F. Omori, H. S. Washington, and Dr. Chilton of Christchurch, who had been one of our inspirers in the New Zealand trip. This Honolulu world congress assigned one meeting to Kilauea Volcano, which enabled me to summarize results before a cosmopolitan group of scientists.
The Washington executives who at this time promoted the Observatory were Secretary of Agriculture David F. Houston, Director George Otis Smith of Geological Survey, Chief Charles Marvin of the Weather Bureau, and Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian. Later came W. C. Mendenhall, firm friend of the Observatory, and Director of the Survey.
It was my good fortune that between 1914 and 1919 Mauna Loa and Kilauea were building up lava toward a fiery crisis, and that the sugar business of Hawaii boomed at the same time. When the 1920 science congress convened there was much fresh lava to be seen, and our Research Association was so prosperous that M. I. T. in Boston kept up its financial interest. The American Journal of Science under Edward Dana of Yale published our results. This was fitting, as Dana’s father, J. D. Dana, had published much about Hawaiian volcanoes. Consequently the end of the foundation decade made easier the financing of the next five years. Just at this time the Geological Survey spurted ahead, the National Park was opened, the Army built a recreation camp and a trail up Mauna Loa, the Inter-island Steamship Company took over the Volcano House, and a Promotion Committee was bringing many tourists.
Fluctuations of Halemaumau lava from 1790 to 1952, the verticals indicating maximum lowering preceding repose periods; minor fluctuations not shown.
Chapter V
Expansion Decade
“There shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places.”
The decade from 1921 through 1930 was a period of tremendous events and of experimentation at Kilauea and Mauna Loa. It was also an expansion decade for the Observatory, and for me. Additional funds made possible new buildings and equipment on Hawaii; observatory activity was established at Lassen Volcano in California; and expeditionary work included a study of the 1923 Tokyo earthquakes, explorations on Alaska volcanoes in 1927, and a visit to Niuafoou in Tonga, part of the great New Zealand-Tonga volcanic chain.
Increased government aid was largely due to the help of the Honorable Louis C. Cramton of Michigan, Republican floor leader of Congress, who took great interest in extending activities within national parks. After we moved from Weather Bureau control to Geological Survey in 1924, Cramton visited our Observatory, concluded that it was an orphan child of the government, and asked me what I wanted. I told him that I needed men and machines, and I suggested expanding our studies to California and the Aleutians.
Meantime, the Research Association was persuaded that we needed a fire-resistant iron building to house library accumulation, record books, and photographic negatives, as well as seismograms and lava specimens. These were precious relics of the very active overflows and experiments of the 1912–1921 period. With the advice of Walter F. Dillingham and Engineer John Mason Young of the University of Hawaii, I built a sheet-iron house with concrete floor and wire-glass skylights, and installed steel furniture. This became an invaluable office, drafting room, and workroom, as well as a place for files.