When the Carnegie returned to its home port on 10 November 1921 after Cruise VI, the goal of a comprehensive global mapping of the geomagnetic field had been largely accomplished. It was by any measure a triumph for the Department and indeed for Bauer personally, as the organization, planning and conduct were to a high degree his alone. He had brought into the work a large group of remarkable individuals and had inspired them with his zeal. Every expedition, every cruise came about because he had willed it; letters and cables from Washington kept things moving as he wished; his occasional participation at sea and in the field provided personal inspiration and supplied him with knowledge of what needed altering. He was at the peak of his career.

In 1920 the Trustees elected a new President, John C. Merriam, to replace Robert Woodward. Woodward and Bauer had come to the Institution together in 1904, and Woodward's work as a geographer made him a consistent supporter of Bauer's goals. Merriam, a paleontologist famous for his studies of the La Brea tar pits near Los Angeles, began to question the future of the Department that to him seemed to offer little more than a continuation of admittedly successful studies. On becoming President he could have hardly missed noting the expense of the cruises and expeditions, and he set new allocations of funds, which led to the cessation of the cruises.