It will be seen that the system of international exchanges, which our Government is under treaty obligations to maintain, is in part supported from the Smithsonian fund, and that the item of $210.20, referred to above, is a reimbursement to that fund of money already advanced for the benefit of the United States Fish Commission.

In conclusion, I beg leave to assure you of my hearty concurrence in the opinion that you have informally expressed, that it is to the interest of the Government that the entire expense of international exchanges should be borne in a single appropriation bill rather than by numerous small appropriations to various bureaus supplementing the general appropriations for exchanges made to this institution.

I am, sir, very respectfully, yours,

Hon. JOSEPH G. CANNON,

S. P. LANGLEY, Secretary.

Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives. Committed to Committee of the Whole.

August 30, 1890.

Sundry civil act for 1891.

For expenses of the system of international exchanges between the United States and foreign countries, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, $17,000.

(Stat., XXVI, 383.)

U. S. Geological Survey: For the purchase of necessary books for the library, and the payment for the transmission of public documents through the Smithsonian exchange, $5,000.

(Stat., XXVI, 392.)

War Department: For the transportation of reports and maps to foreign countries, through the Smithsonian Institution, $100. (Stat., XXVI, 402.)

September 30, 1890.

Deficiency act for 1890, etc.

To reimburse the Smithsonian Institution for expenses incurred in the exchange of the publications of the Fish Commission for those of foreign countries, being for the service of the fiscal year 1889, $215.20. (Stat., XXVI, 507.)

For international exchanges, Smithsonian Institution, $1.05. (Stat., XXVI, 547.)

February 3, 1891-House.

Mr. J. G. CANNON reported from Committee on Appropriations in sundry civil bill for 1892, $17,000.

March 3, 1891.

Deficiency act for 1891, etc.

To pay the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, amount found due by the accounting officers of the Treasury on account of international exchanges, Smithsonian Institution, being for the service of the fiscal year 1889, $0.66.

(Stat., XXVI, 866.)

March 3, 1891.

Legislative, executive, and judicial act for 1892.

* * *

Library of Congress: For compensation of 8 [assistant librarians] at $1,400 each; one of whom shall be in charge of international exchanges

* * *

For expenses of exchanging public documents for the publications of foreign governments, $1,500.

[This pays 1 clerk at $900 and 1 clerk at $600.]

(Stat., XXVI, 914.)

Naval Observatory: For repairs [etc.], * * including payment, to Smithsonian Institution for freight on Observatory publications sent to foreign countries, postage, expressage, [etc.], $4,550.

(Stat., XXVI, 935.)

Patent Office: For purchase of books, and expenses of transporting publications patents issued by the Patent Office to foreign governments, $3,000.

(Stat., XXVI, 939.)

March 3, 1891.

Sundry civil act for 1892.

For expenses of the system of international exchanges between the United States and foreign countries, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, $17,000.

(Stat., XXVI, 963.)

U. S. Geological Survey: For the purchase of necessary books for the library, and the payment for the transmission of public documents through the Smithsonian exchange, $2,500.

(Stat., XXVI, 972.)

War Department: For the transportation of reports and maps to foreign countries, through the Smithsonian Institution, $100.

(Stat., XXVI, 978.)

STANLEY INDIAN PAINTINGS.

January 28, 1890-Senate.

Mr. JAMES MCMILLAN submitted resolution:

That the Committee on the Library be, and it is hereby, directed to inquire into the propriety of purchasing from the administratrix of the late John M. Stanley the historical Indian paintings by the said John M. Stanley now in custody of the Smithsonian Institution, and also the picture known as "The Trial of Red Jacket," now in the possession of the said administratrix.

Referred to Committee on the Library.

February 17, 1890-House.

Mr. J. L. CHIPMAN introduced resolution (same as submitted by Mr. McMillan in the Senate January 28, 1890).

Referred to Committee on the Library.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS MEMORIAL.

February 18, 1890-House.

Mr. JAMES BUCHANAN introduced bill (H. 7165):

That there shall be established in the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia, a memorial to Christopher Columbus, which memorial shall be of the character and erected in the manner hereinafter provided.

SEC. 2. That the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Librarian of Congress be, and they are hereby, constituted a board to select a site, adopt a plan for, and superintend the erection of said memorial; within two months after the passage of this act the said board shall advertise for plans and specifications for such erection; said advertisement shall contain a short statement of the design and purpose of such memorial, and a requirement that any plan submitted shall be capable of subsequent extension and addition, and that for the successful design a fee of $5,000 will be paid; upon the adoption of such design said board shall proceed to erect upon the grounds, preferably connected with the Smithsonian Institution, such memorial. The superintendence of said work shall be under the direction of some officer of engineers in the United States Army, to be detailed for that purpose by the President of the United States upon the request of said board.

SEC. 3. That any design adopted by said board shall provide galleries for the exhibition of paintings and sculptures by American artists first, and second by alien artists; such design shall also provide halls and galleries for the exhibition of the best and most worthy products of American artisanship, including the application of art and ornament to articles of use. It shall also make provision for the exhibition of the progress of the mechanical arts and inventions as applied to manufacturing, the arts, and to agriculture, and to carry out the central design of such memorial, which shall be primarily to afford an exhibition, permanent and progressive, of the achievements of the art and industry of the people of the United States, and secondarily to gather together and exhibit the most worthy works of art and industry of alien people obtainable by the people or the Government of the United States for that purpose. SEC. 4. That the said board are hereby charged with the duty of having the said memorial so far advanced in course of erection that the corner stone thereof shall be laid upon the four hundredth anniversary of the first landing of Christopher Columbus upon American soil, and to provide for appropriate ceremonies in connection therewith, of which an oration by the President of the United States shall form a part.

SEC. 5. That for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act the sum of $1,000,000 is hereby appropriated, to be payable within the first year after the approval of this act, and the sum of $2,000,000 thereafter annually until the full sum of $5,000,000 in all shall have been paid, and all payments shall be made upon the requisition of the said board, and the accounts and vouchers of said board shall be audited and, if found correct, approved by the proper accounting officers. Referred to Committee on the Library.

Mr. JOHN W. CANDLER, from Select Committee on the World's Fair, submitted a report (H. 890) on bill (H. 8393), appended to which was a letter from Mr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution:

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, Washington, March 12, 1890. SIR. I have before me the letter of the Hon. J. W. Candler, chairman of the World's Fair Committee of the House of Representatives, dated February 26, with

your indorsement of March 1, requesting me to furnish an estimate of the cost of placing, caring for, and return of such an exhibit as should, in my judgment, be made by the Smithsonian Institution and National Museum at the World's Fair at Chicago in 1892.

I wish to preface what I have to say with the remark that the estimates for space and cost have been carefully made by experts who have participated in all of the great expositions of the past sixteen years. The Smithsonian Museum is the one bureau of the Government whose special function is that of exhibition, and its officers are prepared to say with great exactness what can be done with any specified sum. The estimates have not been made with a view to possible reduction, but represent the minimum sum with which a display suitable for the place and occasion can be prepared within the time of opening.

I wish also to call attention to the fact that in the fourteen years which have elapsed since the Philadelphia Exhibition the standards of exhibition work have completely changed, and the display of the Government Departments at Philadelphia, which was admirable for the time and thoroughly satisfactory to all visitors, would fall far below the expectations of the present.

As a more specific illustration of my meaning, I will cite the Fisheries Exposition in 1880, which excited so much admiration abroad as to form a kind of epoch in the history of such undertakings. I am assured by the gentlemen in charge of that display-and- to whom its exceptional success was mainly due-that in the London Exhibition of 1883, after a lapse of only three years, the standard of what was expected to be reached had been so raised that had the United States repeated the display (which was so unrivaled in Berlin) it would not have stood higher than tenth among the competing national exhibits on that occasion.

The standard of excellence has recently been still further advanced by the Paris Exposition of 1889, for which the resources of the French Government and the ingenuity and talent of the people were severely taxed during a five years' period of preparation.

Past experience seems therefore inapplicable to present circumstances, and I can only say that in view of the limited time and the great expectations which are entertained in connection with the Chicago Exhibition, the expense must of necessity be greater than on similar occasions in the past.

In 1876 there was practically no National Museum, and the display made at that time by the Smithsonian Institution, covering about 25,000 square feet of floor space, was of a kind which most of the visitors had never seen. In 1892, when the national collections in Washington cover about 125,000 square feet, and are sufficiently extensive to require the immediate addition of at least 105,000 additional square feet, it would seem that the area required in a great international exhibition should be at least three times as much as in 1876, and that the cost of preparation would be proportionately greater in relation to the floor space occupied.

That this must necessarily be so is indicated by our experience at the Cincinnati Exhibition, where the proportionate cost was $6.25 per foot, while at Philadelphia it was approximately $3.75.

Keeping these things in mind, and also the undoubted fact that the time for preparation will be, at most, inadequately brief, I feel that I must name a sum out of proportion to previous expenditures in earlier and smaller Government expositions. The insuring of a successful exhibit on the part of the Smithsonian Institution has not been considered in making our estimates so much as the desire for a reasonable guaranty against failure.

I note with much satisfaction that the resolution of the House committee does not by its wording indicate a disposition to prevent the acquisition of new specimens by purchase and otherwise. In 1876 a large amount of material was obtained, which, after exhibition in Philadelphia, was returned to Washington, becoming the perma

nent property of the people, and the nucleus of the great collections now in the Museum building, and the same usage prevailed at the New Orleans Exposition in 1885.

In 1888, however, on the occasion of the Cincinnati Exposition, the rulings of the Treasury were quite at variance with those on previous occasions, and it was decided by the special auditor in charge of the accounts that no new objects could be obtained except such as might be necessary to "complete series" already in the Museum. This ruling was far from being in the interest of economy, and its enforcement interfered sadly with the success of our participation in the Cincinnati Exhibition.

If the Smithsonian Institution should be instructed to participate in the exhibition at Chicago, it will undoubtedly be necessary to obtain large quantities of new material, which must be either purchased, collected in the field, or, in the case of the models and other similar preparations, which are most effective on such occasions, made in the workshops of the Museum.

The exhibition of such new material will be more essential on this occasion than hitherto, for two principal reasons:

(1) That at a time when the capital will be an especial object of interest for foreign visitors, it will be undesirable to denude its halls of any large number of the objects now on exhibition.

(2) That many of the most attractive objects have already been shown at expositions in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, and elsewhere, and the public visiting the Chicago exhibition would not be satisfied to look at them again.

In planning for the proposed exhibition, those departments would be selected in which it would seem possible, within the brief time available, to make the most imposing and instructive displays, and in which it is believed that results can be produced which would not be discreditable even in comparison with the success of the Paris Exposition. I will mention some of the directions in which satisfactory results may undoubtedly be secured.

(1) The Smithsonian Institution should exhibit its own history, condition, and functions, and the general results of its operations during its forty-six years of existence, including its publications, explorations, and researches, twenty-five years' period of meteorological observations, etc. It may also with propriety undertake to set forth the history of American science and exploration from the time of the discovery of the continent to the present day, and the activities of the numerous scientific institutions and societies of the United States, the progress of scientific exploration by the Government of the United States, and by individuals and foreign governments in all parts of the American continent, together with a collection of portraits of representative scientific men of the world, so far as they have been associated with the development of scientific thought in America.

(2) The National Museum, as on previous occasions, would undertake to illustrate the natural resources of the United States and their utilization, so far as this subject was not undertaken by other departments.

In this connection special attention should be given to the animal resources of the continent. It would be desirable to show large groups mounted by the best methods of modern taxidermy of the various quadrupeds of America which are fast approaching extermination—buffalo, elk, moose, musk ox, caribou, mountain goat, mountain sheep, the five species of deer and beaver, the walrus, the fur seal, the sea elephant, and others equally interesting, and equally liable to extinction, though not so large; indeed, every species of American animal, bird, reptile, or invertebrates which is of sufficient importance to man, at least so far as they are of sufficient interest to mankind, to have been designated by popular names.

In this connection may be represented, also, all methods of hunting employed in America, especially by uncivilized man. Supplementing the whole, a display of the various products of the animal kingdom used by man in his arts and industries. This