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We are not asking for any increased appropriation. The repairs are chiefly pointing up the masonry.

The Chairman. How are you going to get the money? You certainly did not ask for more than you needed for these other buildings, because you submitted an itemized account of what you expected to do with it. If you are now adding two buildings, where are you going to get the money?

Dr. Creel. The repairs to the buildings chiefly consist in cutting windows and erecting certain partitions.

The Chairman. In ether words, you asked enough the first time to now take care of these additional two buildings?

Dr. Creel. In so far as the repairs are not very material, we might have asked for $5,000 more possibly, but it was felt we could make the original appropriation sufficient by reducing the size of the various new barracks, as originally estimated, the remodeled buildings making up the capacity of plant as first estimated.

Tuesday, January 15, 1918.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

STATEMENT OF ME. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, SECRETARY, ACCOMPANIED BY MR. W. DeC. RAYENEL, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT.

NEW NATIONAL MUSEUM, USE BY BUREAU OF WAR RISK INSURANCE. (See pp. 40, 115, 147, 2S1.)

The Chairman. Mr. Walcott, there has been a partial occupancy of the National Museum by the War Risk Insurance Bureau and there have been suggestions as to the further use of the building by that bureau. Have you a general statement you would like to make on that subject?

Mr. Walcott. Mr. Chairman, the first grant of space to the War Risk Insurance Bureau, and then a supplementary grant made in tl e basement, which included one long corridor and what is called the foyer and adjoining rooms; total 37,000 square feet. That space was granted to the bureau as a war measure because it would not interfere seriously with the activities of the museum. That, however, shut out the use of the museum to the different Government bureaus which were holding their meetings and exhibits there, especially the agricultural and several other departments, and necessitated the closing up of the auditorium and the rotunda, as well as the large foyer and adjoining rooms on the basement floor, and the long corridor. To obtain the latter space, the collections: of mammals belonging to the Biological Survey and to the National Museum, which were in steel cases, were removed to the second floor, filling in between the cases.

The Chairman. Those were not on exhibition? • Mr. Walcott. Those collections were not on exhibition. They are what we call the reference and study collections both of the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture and the National

Museum. I may say in this connection that the Museum cooperates with the scientific bureaus of the Government, the Department of Agriculture, and the Geological Survey in taking care of their collections, providing working laboratories for the men who are working on the collections, and in this way the Museum is benefited and the Government bureaus concerned are benefited because their collections are taken care of and made accessible. Eecently there has been a very careful survey made of the exhibition space on the first and second floors above the basement, and careful measurements made to obtain data in relation to the space that could be cleared by moving the cases up together and leaving only room b,y which the curators and assistants could get through and along the cases in order to protect the collections. On the second floor the space that thus could be made available totals 29,900 feet. The space on the first floor totals 49,000 square feet, exclusive of the north wing, in which the art galley is situated.

The Chairman. That is a total of 78,900 square feet?

Mr. Walcott. Yes.

The Chairman. And that is exclusive of any areas now occupied?

Mr. Walcott. Yes, sir.

The Chairman. The result of that would be, of course, to close the Museum to the public?

Mr. "Walcott. That would close the Museum entirely to the public except possibly a passageway could be left to the art gallery from the south entrance, so if the people cared to do so they could visit the art gallery.

The Chairman. Moving the exhibits in that way would entail what, if any, risk to them?

Mr. Walcott. By selecting the hall or the spaces where the moving of the cases would injure their contents as the storage halls, and taking those cases where there would be relatively little danger of damaging the contents there would be comparatively little danger.

The Chairman. That would still leave that part of the building now devoted to the work of the staff available to them?

Mr. Walcott. That would leave that part of the building available. All these laboratories occupied by the staff are filled with collections that are under study and that is where the activities of many of the bureaus or divisions of the Agricultural Department and the Geological Survey are conducted.

The Chairman. So that the effect of this action would be, for the time it was continued, to close the Museum to the public, but not to interfere with the work of the staff of the Museum?

Mr. Walcott. Only in a very limited way. It might make it a little more difficult for them to get at the things, but not in an essential way.

The Chairman. What have you to say, Mr. Walcott, as to such action being taken?

Mr. Walcott. Mr. Chairman, I think it would be a very unfortunate thing to do, and it should only be done as a war measure and because there is no other way of accomplishing the same result in a practical manner.

The Chairman. Of course, you are aware of the need of quite a bit of increase of space in a fire-proof building by this bureau, and

you are probably also aware of the present absence of any such space in the District of Columbia ?

Mr. Walcott. No, sir; I am not aware of the necessities of that bureau in that regard.

The Chairman. Of course, the gentlemen who are charged with the administration of the law and the running of the bureau arc probably the best judges as to the amount of need they have for fireproof space.

Mr. Walcott. They should be.

The Chairman. Are you questioning their judgment or simply expressing a lack of information on your part?

Mr. Walcott. A lack of information.

The Chairman. Assuming there was such need, do you know of any present space in Washington that would be available?

Mr. Walcott. Mr. Chairman, a letter which I wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury December 15, 1917, stated that in the New National Museum they then had 25,000 square feet, and to that since has been added about 12,000 square feet. In Center Market they have 15,000 square feet and in the Elks Hall on H Street there has recently been rented by the Treasury Department for this purpose 20,000 square feet, making a total of 72,000 square feet. It is further understood that certain buildings at the southwest corner of Fourteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue containing 21,000 square feet which are now being remodeled by the Treasury Department will be available for the bureau February 1; also, that the Merchants Transfer Co. of Washington have submitted a plan to furnish within five months, if their bid is accepted at once, a fireproof building 8 or 10 stories high to contain 135,000 square feet of space.

The Chairman. You may not know, but it appears as a fact that the buildings which are being remodeled by the Treasury Department are expected to be taken over by the Internal-Eevenue Bureau of the Treasury Department and therefore would not be available for this purpose.

Mr. Eavenel. The information we furnished there was given me in the Treasury Department at the time that statement was made.

The Chairman. The testimony before this committee, considerably since that letter was written, as well as informal information which I have received, is that that remodeling is for the benefit of the Internal Revenue Bureau. The proposal of the Merchants Transfer Co. is simply a building proposal. I was speaking of available areas now.

Mr. Walcott. There is another paragraph in this letter which states that it is also reported that the new Odd Fellows Hall, located on Seventh Street between D and E Streets, containing 41,000 square feet, may be leased.

Mr. Ravenel. That information was also given me by the Treasury Department in the Chief Clerk's-office on the same date.

The Chairman. It was testified by the War Risk Insurance Bureau that they needed very speedily 135,000 square feet of space.

Mr. Walcott. In addition to Avhat they have?

The Chairman. No ; that was the total.

Mr. Sisson. And that was a minimum.

The Chairman. They have now, I think, about 67,000 square feet, and about 75,000 square feet would probably take care of the situation until such time as a building could be acquired or built to deal with the fire-proof needs of the bureau. What we would like to have. Mr. Walcott, is such further statement as you may care to make in opposition to such action touching- the Museum as would result practically iu closing it to the public as an exhibition place.

Mr. Walcott. Of course if this action is taken it will close the Museum.

The Chairman. We would like to have such reasons as you may desire to advance why such action as would close it should not be taken.

Mr. Walcott. Mr. Chairman, if it is a war necessity I do not think there are any reasons which could be given.

The Chairman. Well, here is a bureau which needs fire-proof space for its records. I suppose you recognize the fact that the records of a bureau of this kind should be safeguarded perhaps more than tl e records of any other bureau of the Government.

Mr. Walcott. Yes. sir: but I do not know but that the space they already have would be sufficient to guard those record.-.

The Chairman. Tiny must be used as well as guarded. It does not mean to simply store them. They are records that have to be lay, and therefore must be available. Now. this commil-tee has had put up to it the need of supplying this bureau with space. It would not like to take the Museum space unless it had to, and I am sure Congress would not want to do it unless it felt compelled to do so. We would be glad to have any suggested solution from you, as it is not a questi< n of what we can do five or six months from now, but what we can do now.

Mr. Walcott. Mr. Chairman, I can not give yen a suggested solution of it at the moment without thoroughly going into the question of what may be available or may not b3 available. The same bureau t< Id us in November that there was no other space available, and. again in December, and space was found. Whether space of a fireproof character to answer their purposes could be found or not, I do not know.

The Chairman. "What space in addition to what you have already given to them could be given withoul seriously interfering with the use of the Museum by the public—any?

Mr. Ravf.m:l. You have it right there, the two floors that are occupied for exhibition purposes, and that is putting the cases in those floors as close together as possible. We have allowed no margin except the smallest amount of space to pass through there.

The Chairman. You perhaps did net gather the purport of my question. I understand that 7^.000 square feet of floor space could be obtained by closing the Museum to the public, and that represents the maximum, according to your testimony, if you do not include the art gallery, which would still be left open to the public under that arrangement. Now, I inquired as to what amount of space might be made available for the bureau without seriously interfering with the use of the Museum by the public. Of course, it'would interfere in some regard, but you have a number of exhibits there which perhaps are of less general interest and importance now than others,

and conceivably it might be possible to take some portion of the space there, and, while to that extent interfering with its use by the public, still leave a very great part of the Museum open to the public.

Mr. Walcott. Mr. Chairman, the second floor could be closed, and that would give 29,900 square feet, and that would leave the first floor practically open, except the rotunda.

The Chairman. What would be the attitude of the Museum touching that, as a matter of five or six months' occupancy?

Mr. Walcott. Mr. Chairman, you would have a large force there as a practical thing; there are no toilet facilities on that floor, and you would have 600 clerks working in there night and day who would have the run of the entire building. You could not shut it off.

Wednesday, January 9,1918. SECRET SERVICE DIVISION, TREASURY DEPARTMENT. STATEMENT OF ME. W. H. MOBAN, CHIEF.

^ADDITIONAL CLERKS.

Mr. Sisson. Your item is as follows: "For additional clerks from January 1 to June 30, 1918, inclusive, at rates of compensation, as follows: Clerks—one of class 4 and one of class 1; in all, $1,500." What is the reason for this ?

Mr. Moran. Well, the main reason is the very great increase in the work of the office. The work in our office is three times what it was before the war. It is easily that. Then, too, our field appropriation in 10 years has more than doubled. That means an increase in the field force, or an equivalent increase v in the field force.

Mr. Sisson. Mr. Moran, what character of work does your division do?

Mr. Moran. Besides suppressing counterfeiting and protecting the President, we are doing practically all of the food investigating work for the Food Administration, and we are doing practically all of the investigating work for the War Trade Board; besides our work for the State Department.

Mr. Sisson. Now, how has your work been increased by virtue of the war?

Mr. Moran. In the first place, take the State Department work and the work for the War Trade Board and the Food Administration. We have to keep separate accounts. They make separate reports in duplicate or triplicate. They come into the office and have to be handled and filed, and the accounts have to be audited and prepared for the increased number of men that we are handling. In addition to that, this war has brought to us a great volume of correspondence. A great deal of it does not belong to us, but we must refer it somewhere else. It must be taken care of. We have to make ai•knowledgments.

Mr. Sisson. I notice that you ask for two clerks, one of class 4 and one of class 1. Do you expect to make any promotions?

Mr. Moran. The reason I ask for a clerk of class 4 is this: My intention was to put that man on accounts, and he must handle the