FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY-ESTIMATES. December 5, 1887-House. Estimates for 1889. For the purpose of continuing ethnological researches among the American Indians, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, $50,000. December 3, 1888-House. Estimates for 1890. For the purpose of continuing ethnological researches among the American Indians, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, $50,000. March 30, 1888. BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY-APPROPRIATIONS. Deficiency act for 1888. For North American ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, $49.09. (Stat., XXV, 63.) [To cover claim reported in House Executive Document No. 90, Fiftieth Congress, first session.] October 2, 1888. Sundry civil act for 1889. For the purpose of continuing ethnological researches among the American Indians, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, $40,000. (Stat., XXV, 529.) March 2, 1889. Sundry civil act for 1890. For the purpose of continuing ethnological researches among the American Indians, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, $40,000. (Stat., XXV, 952.) SERVICES OF SPENCER F. BAIRD. December 12, 1887-Senate. Mr. GEORGE F. EDMUNDS introduced a bill (S. 533) to pay Mrs. Mary C. Baird, widow of the late Spencer F. Baird, the sum of $50,000, in full compensation for the services and expenses of the said Spencer F. Baird during his administration of the office of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, from February 25, 1871, to the time of his death, in August, 1887. Mr. EDMUNDS. This is not a claimant's bill, but is a bill to provide for paying the widow of the late Professor Baird for about sixteen years of gratuitous service that he performed as Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. I move that the bill be referred to the Committee on Appropriations, who have been familiar with the subject and made appropriations for it, and I hope that they will report upon it very early, indeed, as I believe it myself to be a very meritorious and just bill. Referred to Committee on Appropriations. January 12, 1888.-House. The first bill on the Calendar was read, as follows: A bill1 (S. 261) to amend the law concerning the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. Be it enacted, etc., That section 4395 of the Revised Statutes of the United States be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: "That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a person of scientific and practical acquaintance with the fish and fisheries to be a Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, and he shall receive a salary of $5,000 a year, and he shall be removable at the pleasure of the President. Said Commissioner shall not hold any other office or employment under the authority of the United States or any State." The report (by Mr. POINDEXTER DUNN) was read, as follows: The Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries, to whom was referred the bill (S. 261) entitled "An act to amend the law concerning the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries," have considered the same, and report it back to the House without amendment and recommend its passage without delay. The United States Fish Commission was established by act of February 9, 1871, which provided for the appointment by the President, with the consent of the Senate, of a Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries from among the civil officers or employees of the Government, who shall serve without additional salary. The act contemplated simply an investigation, "with the view of ascertaining whether any, and what, diminution in the number of food-fishes” had taken place, and also what "protective, prohibitory, or precautionary measures should be adopted, and report upon the same to Congress." The act of March 3 of the same year to provide for deficiencies, etc., appropriated $5,000 for the expenses of the inquiry ordered. Prof. Spencer F. Baird, then assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and an employee of the Government, he having charge of the National Museum, was appointed Commissioner. He prosecuted the inquiries with so much zeal, energy, and ability that the act of 1871 was reenacted, and the deficiency bill of May 18, 1872, made an additional appropriation of $3,500 to continue the inquiry and $500 for the preparation of illustrations, tables, and report. So impressed was Congress with the wisdom of Professor Baird's recommendations, based on the investigations he had made into the condition of our fisheries, that the act of June 10, 1872, contained an appropriation of $5,000 to continue those 'The bill (S. 261) passed Senate on December 21, 1887. investigations auring the fiscal year, and $15,000 was provided "for the introduction of shad into the waters of the Pacific States, the Gulf States, and of the Mississippi Valley; and of salmon, whitefish, and other useful food fishes into the waters of the United States to which they are best adapted." Each succeeding year appropriations have been increased as the work was extended under the wise and successful management of the Commissioner. The act limiting the appointment of the Commissioner to the detail of some one at the time in the employ of the Government appears to have contemplated only an inquiry occupying perhaps a few summer months. At the time of the selection of Professor Baird his duties under his salaried position were comparatively light, as he was charged with the administration, under the Secretary, of the Museum, which was in those days contained in the small space which could be allowed in the Smithsonian building. Under Professor Baird's masterly, wise, and energetic management both the Fish Commission and the National Museum have grown to large proportions, so that at his death the work of the Fish Commission had developed from an inquiry in 1871, on an appropriation of $5,000, to the production, transportation, and distribution of over 100,000,000 young fish and the administration of some 16 hatching and rearing stations-2 in Maine, at Grand Lake Stream and Bucksport; 2 in Massachusetts, at Gloucester and Woods Hole; 2 in Michigan, at Northville and Alpena; 1 at Duluth; 1 on the Columbia River; 2 in California, on the Sacramento; 1 on the Susquehanna, at Havre de Grace; 1 at the mouth of the Potomac; 2 within the city of Washington; 1 at Fort Washington, and 1 at Wytheville, Va.-besides the administration of scientific investigations and fish hatching done by three steam and one sailing vessel and of three transporting cars specially designed to transfer fish from one end of the country to the other. The National Museum has had a corresponding expansion, for in addition to the hall of the Smithsonian, which held the collections in 1871, and whose administration cost $20,000, a building covering 34 acres has been built and equipped, and it has been found necessary to appropriate $168,000 for their care this year. The necessity arose for husbanding and increasing our food resources, and Professor Baird created and expanded the Fish Commission, and although the act of 1871 may have been prudent and a wise measure at the time it was enacted, and although the work of the Fish Commission as well as that of the Museum was well done by him, perhaps at sacrifice of some years of his valuable and honored life, it is to be doubted if, at the time of his appointment as Fish Commissioner, the Smithsonian, the National Museum, and the Fish Commission had been of their present magnitude, Congress would have provided for their conduct being placed even on his broad shoulders and the work of three assigned to his well-trained and cultivated intellect. The work of the Fish Commission has become so extensive and the results so important to the country that it should be made, as this bill proposes, the sole object of the Commissioner. It should occupy all his time. This bill, therefore, while giving the President the greatest latitude in making his choice, takes away the limitation that that choice shall be confined to those who may be otherwise employed by the Government. This bill repeals the provision of the act of 1871 which requires that the now important and all-engrossing duties of the Fish Commissioner shall be performed at the expense of some other department and some other appropriation. Under the present law the Commissioner must either hold a sinecure, receive a Government salary which he does not earn, or he must neglect duties for which he is paid in order that he might perform others for which he is not paid, or perhaps, as in the case of Professor Baird, devote hours which nature demands for rest and recreation to Government work without compensation. The first two alternatives |