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156 Wednesday, January 6, 1954. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

WITNESSES

DR. L. CARMICHAEL, SECRETARY

J. E. GRAF, ASSISTANT SECRETARY

DR. J. L. KEDDY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY

DR. R. KELLOGG, DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM

L. I. OLIVER, SUPERINTENDENT OF BUILDINGS AND LABOR

Amounts available for obligation

1953 act ual 1954 estimate

1955 estimate

Appropriation or estimate...

Unobligated balance, estimated savings

Obligations incurred

$2,419,500 ! $3,000,000 -405 I

$3,000,000

2, 419. 095

3,000,000

3,000,000

Obligations by activities

Description

1. Management

2. Operation of—

U. 8. National Museum

Bureau of American Ethnology

Astrophysics] Observatory

National Collection of Fine Arts

National Air Museum

Canal Zone Biological Area.

International Exchange Service

3. General services:

Maintenance and operation of buildings Other general services _

Obligations incurred

1953 actual

$57. 289

765, 514 59, 454

119,840 43,618

145, 242

7,000

65,664

864, 945 290, 528

1954 estimate

$54, 869

1,133,379 61,170 117,577 42,287 153, 587 7,000 91,973

1,046,889

291,269

3,000,000

1955 estimate

$54,869

1, 145, 379 61,170 117,577 42, 287 153, 587 7,000 78. 973

1,034, 889 304, 269

3,000,000

Obligations by objects

Object classification

1953 actual

1954 estimate

1955 estimate

Total number of permanent positions

Full-time equivalent of all other positions

Average number of all employees.

Average salaries and grades:

General schedule grades:

Average salary

Average grade.

Crafts, protective, and custodial grades:

Average salary. _ _

Average grade

01 Personal services:

Permanent positions.

Other positions

Regular pay in excess of 52-week base Payment above basic rates

Total personal services

02 Travel

03 Transportation of things

04 Communication services

05 Rents and utility services

06 Printing and reproduction

07 Other contractual services

08 Supplies and materials

09 Equipment...

13 Refunds, awards, and indemnities

15 Taxes and assessments

Obligations incurred

501

4

492

$5,206 GS-7.4

$3,135 CFC-4.0

601

3

485

$5, 279 GS-7.4

$3,168 CPC-t.O

$2,012,870

13,052

7,931

34,056

, 067, 909

8,710

42,172

10 736

30,993

92,320

42, 676

69,696

50,850

a3

2,970

$2,021,528

10,000

7,879

33,485

, 072,892 10. 225 69,400 ll.OTO 32,125 92,320 593,735 56, 750 56, 553

5,000

3, 000. 000

501

3

477

$5.375 GS-7.4

$3,211

rir-i.ii

$2, 021, 528

10, 000

7.879

33,485

2,072,892 15,225 56,400 24,000 32,125 92,320 576,735 56,760 68, 553

5,000

3. 000,000

Analysis of expenditures

Mr. Phillips. The committee will come to order.

We have with us this morning the representatives of the Smithsonian Institution with a statement of their budgetary needs for the fiscal year 1955.

We have with us today Dr. Carmichael, Mr. Graf, Dr. Keddy, Dr. Kellogg, and Mr. Oliver.

JUSTIFICATION OF THE ESTIMATES

In this statement that you have furnished to each member of the committee I find a good deal of matter that is very interesting but perhaps not necessary to be put in the printed report. The pages that are necessary, without naming them now, will be put into the record at this point.

(The matter referred to is as follows:)

General Statement

For the fiscal year 1955, the Smithsonian Institution has established the following objectives: (1) The preservation for the American people of their irreplaceable national collections, the attractive exhibition of these treasures, and furnishing information relating thereto; (2) the continuation of its researches; (3) the publication of the results of these investigations; and (4) the international exchange of scientific literature. The basic concern of the Institution is to maintain full cognizance of the ever-widening horizons of modern science and to keep abreast of the demands made by the public, by other Federal agencies and scientific institutions, and by the Congress.

THE 1955 BASE

To understand the Smithsonian's need for retaining its present base—that is, for continuing its 1954 appropriation in 1955—one should review briefly its appropriation history since the economy year 1934. That year the Institution's operations were reduced nearly 30 percent, a cut from which little recovery was made prior to World War II when the Smithsonian Institution again had to make severe reductions in the number of its employees and in "Other obligations."

After the close of hostilities, the Smithsonian staff had to be somewhat enlarged in order to meet the requirements of the 40-hour week. In recent years, however, because of the necessity of annually absorbing the entire costs of within-grade promotions, the Institution again has had to make crippling reductions in its staff. The result is that while the Institution's workloads have increased an average of 150 percent in the past 20 years, there is actually less manpower to move them than in 1934. Though pay increases in the past 10 years have required appropriations for the Smithsonian Institution to be considerably increased, such appropriation increases have not provided additional staff. On the contrary, since 1949, the Institution's staff has been reduced from 532 to 482 employees in 1954. In the fiscal year 1955 it will be still further reduced to 474. As a con-

sequence, the present drastically curtailed staff finds it is unable to prevent both its unsurpassed national collections and its monumental exhibition buildings from undergoing constant deterioration.

The sums available for "Other obligations," exclusive of the two special programs for the renovation of our exhibits and the rehabilitation of our buildings started in the fiscal year 1954, are likewise entirely inadequate. Excluding two new bureaus, the National Air Museum and the Canal Zone Biological Area, added in 1946, both by acts of Congress, and the two special programs just mentioned, the amount available for other obligations is no more than it was in 1932. Yet prices of commodities, equipment, printing and binding, and freight rates in the past 20 years have doubled and in many instances tripled. In brief, the Institution is trying to carry on its day-to-day operations with far less resources than it had in 1932 despite a 150 percent increase in its basic workloads; namely, preservation of the collections, information requests, and number of visitors.

THE 1955 ESTIMATE

The 1955 estimate for "Salaries and expenses, Smithsonian Institution" contemplates the appropriation of the same amount which the Congress appropriated for the fiscal year 1954; namely, $3 million. However, a few minor changes, which will involve no change in the total sum to be appropriated, are proposed in the amounts to be allotted to the following activities:

1. United States National Museum. —An increase of $5,000 for travel; a corresponding decrease of $5,000 in the item for the renovation of exhibits; and an increase of $12,000 (transferred from "Maintenance and operation of buildings") for storage equipment.

2. International Exchange Service. —A decrease of $13,000 (transferred to "Other general services") in the item for transportation of American publications in accordance with the Treaty of Brussels.

3. Maintenance and operation of buildings. —A decrease of $12,000 (transferred to "United States National Museum") in the item for the rehabilitation of exhibition buildings.

4. Other general services. —An increase of $13,000 (transferred from "International Exchange Service") to pay part of the cost of penalty mail.

Analysis by activities

41872—i54f—pt. 1-

-11

o

United States National Museum

The United States National Museum will be engaged in 1955 in the following recurring annual work programs:

(1) Accession of the collections.

(2) Cataloging of the collections.

(3) Preservation of the collections.

(4) Scientific study of the collections and publication of the results thereof.

(5) Exhibition of selected portions of the collections.

(6) Furnishing of information to other agencies and to the public.

CHANGES REQUESTED

The United States National Museum requires for 1955 for other obligations the following changes in the amounts to be allotted to this activity: 02 Travel— an increase of $5,000; 07 Renovation of exhibits—-a corresponding decrease of $5,000; and 09 Equipment—an increase of $12,000 for storage equipment. The latter amount is to be transferred from "Maintenance and operation of buildings."

02 Travel

The United States National Museum requires for travel in 1955 an increase over 1954 of $5,000. The amount available to the museum from the Institution's basic travel allotment is only $3,765, a sum which will be wholly expended for the preshipment inspection and appraisal of important collections offered as donations, the continuation of comparative studies by the staff in other institutions for the purpose of improving the documentation of the national collections as reference materials, and field investigations and explorations to complete basic reference collections. No funds are available for travel required in the development of the long-time program for the renovation of exhibits, and the present limitation prevents the use of exhibits funds for this purpose.

The additional $5,000 requested would be expended as follows:

(1) Field work to obtain materials for foregrounds of animal and plant exhibits, both living and fossil, to insure the creation of purposeful educational displays, $3,000.

(2) Consultation with other museum exhibits experts, including suppliers and contractors leading to improved design of contemplated exhibits; evaluation of newly developed exhibition techniques and processes for application and adaptation to our own requirements; ascertainment of methods for practical utilization of commercially available materials in the construction of displays; study of recent improvements in the lighting of exhibits; and determination of the effectiveness of methods for presenting the explanatory text on labels, $2,000.

In view of the magnitude of the planning, development, and execution of the exhibition renovation program, and the large sums proposed to be invested therein, the Institution considers it a part of good management to spend a relatively small sum of money in obtaining the best available information concerning exhibit programs which have been successfully completed elsewhere. This information can best be obtained by firsthand personal inspection, not only of the finished display but also of the techniques employed in the preparation of the exhibits.

07 Modernization of exhibits

In 1955, some 3,500,000 people are expected to visit the Smithsonian Institution, excluding the National Gallery of Art and National Zoological Park. They will come to see the Nation's treasures in science, art, and history and to find inspiration, pleasure, and instruction in the exhibits illustrating our scientific, cultural, and historical development. The huge attendance offers the opportunity to impart to millions information concerning the history and traditions of America and to impress them with the hard work, earnest thought, and sacrifices that have laid the foundations of our national well-being. It is also an opportunity to give them a summary of the processes and conclusions of the sciences which have developed our knowledge of man and the resources of the world in which we live. With this opportunity goes the responsibility on the part of the Institution and the Federal Government to present the national collections with dignity, clarity, and effectiveness. We believe that the impressions which the millions of visitors gain in our halls will inspire them with a very real appreciation of the tremendous advances made in the development of human knowledge in the past 150 years.

Our visitors belong to the generations which have been heavily indoctrinated in the use of visual aids in education, the pictorial presentations of involved subjects in the press, modern display advertising, comic strips, the movies, radio, and television. Their habits of idea reception have become conditioned to these new means of communication. These and other techniques of presentation continue to advance to higher levels of technical excellence. As a consequence, the United States National Museum found itself impelled to initiate a program for the progressive renovation of its exhibition halls in order to continue to attract the attention and active interest of the present-day public. Congress approved for 1954 the sum of $360,000 to begin the program of rehabilitating the exhibits in the United States National Museum, so that they will be arresting and effective, as well as scholarly, and meet the high standards of present-day displays. The 1954 program is now well under way in collaboration with the Public Buildings Service for the rehabilitation of the White House Costume Hall, the American Indian Hall, and portions of the North American Mammal Hall and Bird Hall. The temporary building in the west court of the Natural History Building for storage and restoration of exhibits has just been completed.

Plans for the furtherance of the exhibit renovation program in 1955 have been developed which it is estimated will cost $355,000—$5,000 less than the sum available in 1954. This program will include the following renovation projects:

Summary of exhibits renovation projects, fiscal year 1955

1. Continuing work of North American Mammal Hall, Natural History

Building $58,000

2. Continuing Bird Hall, Natural History Building 79, 000

3. Completing Hall 23, Anthropology (Latin America), Natural Historv

Building _ 15,000

4. Hall 26, Anthropology (American Culture) Natural History Building. 203, 000

Total 355,000

09 Equipment

The United States National Museum requires for 1955 for equipment an increase over 1954 amounting to $12,000 for the storage of the national collections. This amount is to be transferred from "Maintenance and operation of buildings." Funds for this purpose were eliminated 3 years ago and must be restored.

The 1955 storage equipment requirements of $12,000 are listed below:

(1) Department of Anthropology

90 storage cases and 165 drawers and 192 shelves (ethnology) $6, 630

100 storage cases and 280 storage drawers (archeology) 5, 370

Total (4,032 cubic feet) 12, 000

Justification of this amount is given below.

DIVISION OF ETHNOLOGY

The Division of Ethnology is responsible for the objects constituting the material culture of aboriginal groups throughout the world. These collections comprise 202,451 specimens individually discrete and for the most part perishable in character. Their preservation constitutes one of the fundamental responsibilities of this division and requires weekly inspection and special techniques. These objects are made from many diverse materials, including baleen, buckskin, fabrics (cotton, linen, silk, hair, and wool), feathers, fur, horn, ivory, leather, rawhide, and other animal products, shell, basketry, birchbark, wood, parchment, earthenware, compositions and plastics, plaster, stoneware, porcelain, glass, pewter and other metallic allo3 r s, Sheffield plate and sterling silver, gold, bronze, brass, copper, tin, iron, and steel. All are subject to deterioration or damage by moisture, excessive dehydration in non-air-conditioned housing, sunlight, insect pests, oxidation, or chemical decomposition.

No facilities such as air-conditioned rooms or even safe storage are now available for most of these objects. To provide minimum storage facilities, there is need for the construction of 26 standard quarter-unit storage cases ($1,040), including 110 standard quarter-unit drawers, depth 4 inches ($402), and 55 quarter-unit drawers, depth 6 inches ($239); and 64 half-unit storage cases 19}£ inches in depth,

equipped with adjustable metal brackets for shelf supports ($4,181) and 192 shelves with adjustable brackets ($768).

The total amount requested for this Division is $6,630.

DIVISION OF ARCHEOLOGY

The Division of Archeology is responsible for collections related to the prehistoric cultures of the peoples of past ages and representing such diversified societies as those of the Paleolithic and Neolithic peoples of Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as those of the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians and the numerous prehistoric Indian tribes of North, Middle, and South America. The number of cataloged objects now totals 525,623.

A large backlog of unclassified collections has accumulated as a result of the river basin surveys. Provision must be made for the permanent preservation of these materials.

At present permanent storage facilities cannot be provided for the safe custody of such objects. The division requires 100 standard quarter-unit storage cases ($4,000), including 100 drawers, depth 6 inches ($432), 100 drawers, depth 8 inches ($490), and 80 drawers, depth 10 inches ($448) for these archeological specimens.

The total amount requested for this Division is $5,370.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE

In accordance with executive agreements, treaties, international acts, or conventions between the United States Government and signatory governments relating to the exchange of publications, the International Exchange Service will be engaged in 1955 in the following recurring work programs:

(1) Transmission of United States and other domestic publications to foreign countries signatory to the above agreements.

(2) Receipt of foreign publications and their distribution to United States agencies and other domestic institutions.

The volume of publications received from foreign countries for addressees in the United States during the 1953 fiscal year was greater than that received in any year since 1939, and is expected to reach 160,000 pounds in the fiscal year 1955. The volume of domestic publications for shipment abroad is expected to total 780,000 pounds.

DECREASE REQUESTED

The International Exchange Service requires for 1955 for transportation of things a decrease below 1954 of $13,000. The total amount available for this purpose during the fiscal year 1954 is $55,000. This substantial increase over the amount available in 1953 was appropriated for the purpose of removing a very large backlog of shipments pending at the beginning of fiscal year 1954 because of insufficient funds in 1953. The 1954 allotment of $55,000 will permit the shipment of an estimated 1,157,990 pounds, and the reduction of the backlog to that which would normally be on hand in processing the publications for shipment. As a consequence, the amount requested for 1955, namely $42,000, for transportation of things, is $13,000 less than the amount required in 1954. This amount is to be transferred to "Other general services" to pay in part the costs Of penalty mail.

Maintenance and Operation of Buildings

The Maintenance and Operation Division will be engaged in 1955 in the following work programs:

I. Regular recurring annual work program:

A. Protection of the buildings and collections against fire, theft, or damage.

B. Operation of heating, lighting, and ventilating systems, and furnishing

telephone, elevator, and truck services to the Smithsonian group of buildings.

C. Maintenance of the buildings which involves the operation of seven

shops—sheet metal, paint, cabinet, plumbing, blacksmith, machine, and canvas; and the providing of cleaning and labor services.

D. Construction of storage and exhibition equipment and various scientific

devices.

II. Long-term work program:

A. Alterations and improvements in the natural history, arts, and industries,

Smithsonian, and Freer Gallery of Art buildings.

B. Resurfacing sections of service roadways and sidewalks.

DECREASE REQUESTED

The Division of Maintenance and Operation requires for 1955 a decrease below 1954 of $12,000 in the item for the rehabilitation of exhibition buildings. This decrease is to be transferred to the United States National Museum for the purchase of additional storage equipment.

07 Other contractual services {rehabilitation of exhibition buildings)

The Smithsonian Institution is responsible for the operation and maintenance of one of the most important groups of public buildings in the National Capital. It includes the Smithsonian Building, the Arts and Industries Building, the Natural History Building, the Freer Gallery of Art, and the Aircraft Building, as well as a group of small temporary buildings on the south side of the Mall. The Smithsonian group of buildings is important because some 3,429,375 visitors now pass through its exhibition halls every year—an increase of 140 percent since 1933, while the total number of objects of art, science, and history now comprising its world-famous national collections is 34,764,345—an increase of 144 percent since 1933.

Comparisons with 1933 have been made because since that time only a few small sums have been appropriated by Congress, as emergencies have arisen, for the repair of Smithsonian buildings. These buildings are 101, 72, 40, and 31 years old respectively. As a result the Congress has approved appropriations amounting to $195,500 for 1954 for the purpose of initiating a program of renewal, restoration, or rehabilitation of the exteriors and interiors of these buildings, including floors, walls, windows, ceilings, and roofs, electric lighting, steam lines, and water systems. It is planned to continue this long delayed rehabilitation program in the fiscal year 1955 so that the results of many, many years of neglect may be eventually overcome; that the Smithsonian group of buildings may regain a reasonably presentable and pleasing appearance for the millions of Americans who annually visit them; and that the future cost of building maintenance may be subsequently curtailed.

The 1955 list of projects in furtherance of this longtime program of progressively rehabilitating our main exhibition buildings is given in detail in the following table by buildings and according to priority under each building:

Rehabilitation of buildings program, fiscal year 1955 — Summary of projects

Natural History Building (1910): 1. Remodeling public comfort rooms. $19, 750 Arts and Industries Building (1881):

1. Replacement of steam supply line $20, 000

2. Painting exhibition halls 25, 250

3. Replacement of folding gate, north entrance 2, 500

47, 750

Smithsonian Building (1852):

1. Installation of lighting fixtures in west end exhibit area. 15, 000

2. Replacement of hydraulic freight lift 9, 000

3. Rehabilitation of public comfort rooms 9, 000

33,000

Freer Building (1922):

1. Replacement of steam supply and return lines 30, 000

2. Modernization of lighting in exhibition galleries and

office rooms 20,000

3. Redecorating exhibition galleries, gallery corridors, and

office rooms 33, 000

83,000

Total 183, 500

Other General Services

increase requested

Other general services requires for 1955 an increase over 1954 amounting to $13,000 to meet part of the cost of penalty mail payments. The detailed estimate of the cost of this new expenditure item amounts to $15,958. This amount includes: $4,719 to cover the Institution's correspondence; $7,639 for book mailings by the International Exchange Service; and $3,600 for publications mailed directly from the Government Printing Office for the Smithsonian Institution.

Mr. Phillips. Dr. Carmichael, do you want to make a statement in addition to what is in the record?

GENERAL STATEMENT

Dr. Carmichael. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I will try to make my statement brief because I know that you are all familiar with the work of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institution was founded for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, and we try to live up to that original statement.

It is probably America's oldest scientific research institution that has full-time investigators. Through the years its functions have been related to providing information for the public and for other investigators in universities and scientific laboratories.

The work of the Smithsonian Institution, I sometimes think, is not fully understood. Until I came to the Smithsonian Institution, I am sure I did not fully understand it. It studies, classifies, and identifies minerals and in general the makeup of the earth's crust, and it does the same for plants and animals, in the rocks and on the surface of the earth and in the oceans.

Mr. Phillips. Do not forget the stars.

Dr. Carmichael. Thank you. I am coming to the stars. It indeed studies radiation directly, and the effect of the sun's radiation on life on the earth. It studies primitive man and his handicrafts. It studies science in general, technology and invention, especially in their historic aspects and as they are related to the development of the industries of our country.

In all of this research the Smithsonian Institution provides a basis by means of which unknown substances and objects can be classified and made useful to man. The Smithsonian can, I think, thus best be described as a library of things relating to the resources of our Nation.

One of its main functions is to keep up to date this national encyclopedia of geology, botany, zoology, anthropology, and the arts.

Tens of thousands of letters are received by us every year, coming from every State in the Union. These letters are from university research workers, from industrialists and citizens interested in science and the arts, and they present problems that are answered by our staff.

Every working day there are scores and often hundreds of scientists from other Government bureaus, and from universities, in our buildings. They are comparing and identifying new objects in relation to important agricultural problems, to insect control measures, to oil-bearing geological strata, uranium ores, and so forth.

When one compares the Smithsonian Institution with a library, one must remember that libraries are largely made up of books, whereas our materials are specimens. We have great collections of so-called type specimens. In a library most books are duplicated in other institutions but type specimens are unique. No university or research institution can, or should, duplicate our over 33 million classified objects.

One interesting sidelight on our collections is the fact that we continually get information that Russia is developing scientific working collections in the same areas of knowledge in which we deal. It is also interesting, to me at any rate, to note that during World

War II when the Russians had their backs to the wall they still had field staffs out collecting objects for the museums of their country.

Not only is the scientific work important, but of course the displays of selected items from the collections of the Smithsonian Institution are important to our millions of visitors who come every year from all over the country. It is our duty to do what we can, it seems to me, to make these exhibitions as attractive and as clean as we can, and to have them in rooms that are reasonably well lighted and painted.

This year, therefore, we request an appropriation of the same amount as of last year. In making this request may we remind you of the fact that the Smithsonian, according to the best studies we have been able to make, has a workload of 150 percent in excess of what it was 20 years ago. This workload is made up of answering letters, providing information and caring for our increasing number of visitors.

In number of man-hours available, the Smithsonian had a more adequate staff in 1934 than it has today, or it will have in 1955 under the appropriations being requested.

The funds requested for services other than personal are also less in cash than they were in 1934 for the comparable bureaus. This is true in spite of our increased workload and the decrease in the purchasing power of the dollar.

I thank you very much indeed for your kindness in letting me make this statement. As you have said, the details of our request are before you.

Salaries and Expexses

Mr. Phillips. Your specific request is for $3 million?

Dr. Carmichael. Yes.

Mr. Phillips. That includes the $183,000 for repairs?

Dr. Carmichael. Yes. It is for the rehabilitation of buildings.

Mr. Phillips. My question was directed merely to the fact that it is all within the $3 million?

Dr. Carmichael. Yes.

Mr. Phillips. I am not quite sure what you mean when you said the $3 million today, compared to the $820,000 that you got in 1934, is less in the way of man-hours.

Dr. Carmichael. Sir, there have been mandatory decreases in the number of hours that Government employees work, and there have been mandatory grade increases in the payment of salaries for specific grades. Therefore, we have gone back to the base that I gave you and listed the number of individuals who were then employed by the Smithsonian Institution and the salaries they received and the number of hours per year they worked, and it is upon the basis of that list that I make the statement. That does not include two small bureaus that have been added by acts of Congress in the intervening years, but they are small bureaus.

Mr. Phillips. That breakdown comparison appears on page 5 of the justifications.

personal services

I observe in looking at the analysis of employees that you apparently have in all groups the same number of employees that you had last year.

Dr. Carmichael. I think we must expect somewhat fewer next year.

Dr. Keddy. We will drop about 8 positions, as shown at the bottom of page 5.

Mr. Phillips. I notice that there are a few in-grade increases in salary.

Dr. Keddy. The No. 12 item on page 5 shows 482 positions and the No. 13 item shows the total dropping to 474. That is because we have to absorb our in-grade promotions. The only way we can find the money is by dropping positions.

Mr. Phillips. What are you dropping?

Dr. Keddy. We do not know who they will be.

Mr. Phillips. In other words, you estimate the average number of positions in order to keep your increases within the money appropriation?

Dr. Keddy. Yes.

Dr. Carmichael. If you will look down the list you will see in the last few years we have been on a curve that keeps going down.

Mr. Phillips. You will take care of some of that money by lapses rather than by complete elimination of the positions?

Dr. Keddy. The position may stay, but we cannot fill it. It stays vacant the entire year, or from the time it takes place. On page 4, in 1932, it shows 468.9 positions. In item 13 on page 5 it shows only 474 positions. Our guards used to be on a 52-hour week. They are now on a 40-hour week. We had to put on a large number of guards when Congress enacted the law putting into effect the 40-hour week. We are, so far as available man-hours per week are concerned, below where we were in 1932.

The only way we can meet the situation is by dropping positions. We do not have as many available man-hours per week now as we did in 1932 or 1934. That is a literal fact.

Mr. Phillips. The changes in the budget itself, outside this personnel matter that we have talked about, are a $12,000 increase for the museum and a $12,000 reduction in the maintenance and operation cost, and $13,000 increase in general services, and a $13,000 decrease in the exchange service.

EQUIPMENT

I think that you had better explain to us what you want to spend the $12,000 for in the National Museum.

Dr. Carmichael. Storage cases.

Dr. Keddy. We have that justified on page 15 under item 09, "Equipment."

Mr. Phillips. I think that you asked for these several years ago and the committee did not think you needed them as much as you did.

Dr. Keddy. We had from Congress as high as $83,748 for storage equipment in 1951. In 1953 the economy wave eliminated funds for storage equipment. We are now in such a desperate state that we are asking you to allow us to transfer funds from one item to another in order to meet the current lack of equipment.

PENALTY MAIL

Mr. Phillips. Tell me about the $13,000 that you want to increase in the general services. Where is that?

Dr. Keddy. The decrease appears on pages 24 and 25.

Mr. Phillips. Where are the increases?

Dr. Keddy. The increases appear on page 29 under "Other general services."

Mr. Phillips. What do you want the $13,000 for?

Dr. Keddy. To pay in part the cost of penalty mail which we now have to pay for instead of getting it free. Congress last summer passed an Act eliminating penalty mail. I think that it was the law of August 15, 1953. Inasmuch as the mail was so great because we send out so many answers to citizens and so many publications and so forth, the Budget Bureau is recommending that Congress go along and let us transfer money out of one place to another in order to meet that cost. In other words, we are meeting it within the cost of the $3 million appropriation.

Mr. Phillips. For the benefit of any members of the committee who may not have heard previous testimony, this item may show an increase in all the agencies before us, as the Post Office Department now asks to be paid for the penalty mail previously charged up against them as a deficit, so each agency will probably have an increase. I am surprised at the amount of your increase, but probably I should not be.

Now, I want to come back to the decreases that you have used to balance off these tw T o increases.

I am not saying that I object to the increases, but I am inclined to question a bit your reasoning. You say these are deductions. You have taken the money from some other fund and in a word economized on that fund in order to put it into the increases. Actually, you are taking the money in both cases from nonrecurring appropriations. You are really saying that you are not going to ask for that much additional money that you would like to have.

For example, we gave you money last year for this international exchange service. We gave you extra money.

Dr. Keddy. Yes.

Mr. Phillips. How can you take money from a fund for which we had to give you extra money last year and say that you are saving money by putting it into the postage account?

Dr. Keddy. You will notice that we did not try to hide this. We have explained the decrease under the one item and we have put in the justification for the increase in the other item. We did not cover it up. We put it out in the open so the committee could examine both items.

Mr. Phillips. That is laudable. The fact of the matter is that we gave you appropriations last year which were, in our words, nonrecurring appropriations. We gave you appropriations for specific items of construction. If you come and ask for additional items of the same general nature, these are separate requests.

exchange service

What is the situation of the exchange service? We have not always been sure that we get adequate returns.

Dr. Carmichael. We do not get back item for item, or pound for pound, but we get back material that is of the very greatest importance to the scientists and universities of our country. I think since I have been connected with the Smithsonian that more university librarians and scientists have spoken with appreciation of this exchange service than any other work of the institution. We have a small, loyal staff that has worked at this service for a long time at low levels of compensation. I think, sir, that it is an economical operation.

Last year we had this tremendous backlog.

Mr. Phillips. How much additional did we give you last year?

Dr. Keddy. $25,000.

Mr. Phillips. Were you able to bring it up to date?

Dr. Carmichael. We were able to bring it up to date. We did get a gift that was needed to help us in addition to our appropriations.

Mr. Phillips. Where did you get that?

Dr. Carmichael. That came from a foundation.

rehabilitation projects

Mr. Phillips. We will now turn to pages 14 and 28 of the justifications. Tell us about this construction and rehabilitation project.

Dr. Keddy. The summary of the renovation projects appears on page 14.

Dr. Carmichael. There is listed on page 14 the amount of money that we believe will be necessary to be spent—and these estimates have been worked out with the General Services Administration—in order to carry on the renovation that has been begun in the museum. The details of that are shown in the other book that is before you.

Mr. Phillips. The members of the committee can see the pictures.

Dr. Carmichael. The work that we have indicated on page 14 is for renovation of what we consider to be of highest priority, and renovation that can be done in connection with a general plan that we have worked out.

Mr. Phillips. Over how many years does your plan run?

Dr. Carmichael. We hope, if it is the will of Congress, that at about the level we are presenting our request now, that this will be done in 9 years.

In the book of Kenovation of Exhibits, you will notice in the picture that at the present time the large mammals are in cases, poorly lighted and pushed together, so that an expert or scientist who wishes to see the external topographical anatomy of these large mammals can do so, but the ordinary visitor is completely lost.

Mr. Phillips. What you want to do is to do away with some of the case exhibits and put them in habitat groups?

Dr. Carmichael. Yes, as other museums are doing all over the world.

Mr. Phillips. What do you want to do with the bird hall?

Dr. Carmichael. The same thing with all halls. One of them, the Middle American Archeology Hall, we hope to complete soon. A good deal of work has been done there. As an example of what we are trying to do may I say that we plan to take a case which may have 50 almost identical stone axes—there may be some subtle differences between them, important to the anthropologist—and instead of having one case of crowded articles that mean nothing to the general

visitor, no matter how well educated, we will try to make exhibits that instruct and tell a story. Thus when a visitor leaves the hall he understands what these objects were, how they were developed, how the culture spread that they represent; in other words, we want to transform our exhibits from mere collections of artifacts, as the arche-ologists call them, into a coherent picture that will educate and instruct each visitor.

Mr. Phillips. What you want to do is to make them more attractive, and then you will have more visitors, and then you will ask for more money to take care of these more visitors.

Dr. Carmichael. Sir, the time will come when this Nation will have to provide more adequate museums than it does at the present time.

Mr. Phillips. What are vou going to do for the $20.5,000 in hall No. 26?

Dr. Carmichael. That is the cultural history hall. That is to provide a display of the history of arts and crafts of our own Nation.

Mr. Phillips. It is more of the same only more extensive. I see that it will cost twice as much as the bird hall.

Dr. Carmichael. There will be special rooms. We will display materials that have been given to us. We have one great donor and other donors who have presented to us unique materials relating to the way our colonial ancestors lived. We have this material but it is now stored in garrets and cubbyholes about the Institution. Such materials are a matter of very great interest to our visitors. I believe it is one of the most important things that we can do to show young Americans the way in which Americans have lived in different periods of our history. We are prepared to do this. We have invaluable collections of such materials, all of which have been given to us. Much of it was given by Mrs. Greenwood, of Massachusetts. We can equip these rooms. They will be unique exhibits of the past of our Nation.

Mr. Phillips. Turn over to page 28 and toll mo about the remodeling of the toilets.

Dr. Carmichael. I questioned that a little when I first came to the Smithsonian but I happened to be in a room adjoining the toilets, indicated here, in warm weather, and the odors that eamo from our toilets into the place whore the collections of fine arts are displayed are distinctly unpleasant and there is nothing apparently that can be done about it. These toilets have been used by millions of people through the years, and wc have pictures in the other book that show you in what bad shape they are. I am told that nothing can bo done except to go in and do a real renovation job.

Mr. Phillips. You also want to do a job on the steam lines.

Dr. Carmichael. Yes. We have high-pressure stoam lines. We have 40 pounds of steam.

Mr. Phillips. Why do you need that much?

Dr. Carmichael. That is the way that it comes to us from the central heating plant. The lines are breaking and are being repaired, and if the main steam line, which is long past its time for replacement, breaks, for example, in the old museum, or in the Smithsonian Building itsolf, some of our most important exhibits could bo spoiled.

PENALTY MAIL

Mr. Phillips. I notice that the rest of the items are about the same, but I notice a projected increase in the mailing service. You might tell us about that.

Dr. Keddy. That is the natural reaction to getting rid of the backlog. You gave us the money to take care of the backlog, and it has gone above the normal line. It dropped far down below.

Mr. Phillips. When did you start working on the backlog?

Dr. Keddy. When the money became available on July 1, 1953,

AIR MUSEUM

Mr. Cotton. Last year we had a discussion about a request for a building to house the different types of aircraft. Has that been abandoned, postponed, or what is the situation on that?

Dr. Carmichael. I am glad that you asked the question. It has been a very difficult question for us. We asked you last year for some money to provide temporary storage facilities at Suitland, Md., for the planes that must necessarily be stored, to be kept for study by experts and for later exhibition purposes, that come to us from the Air Force. You did not give us this money.

Mr. Phillips. We suggested that you take it up with the Air Force and see if they did not want to help you supply space for their own exhibits.

Dr. Carmichael. Yes. The language you used in deferring the request for funds to house aviation exhibits at Suitland, Md., is as follows:

The committee directs that the Air Force continue to provide space for exhibits presently housed in the Chicago area and that it also provide funds for protection and care of such exhibits.

After this information came to us we took this matter up with the Air Force and after some initial misunderstandings were cleared up— and there were a good many of those, I may say—they suggested they would try to help us, as is indicated here. However, they informed us orally that it was necessary for them to get clearance from the Bureau of the Budget to do this, and we have been informed that this clearance was not given to them. So, sir, we are at the present time without any means of accomplishing the objective of protecting this important material.

Mr. Phillips. What reason was given for refusing the clearance?

Dr. Carmichael. It was not our request to the Bureau of the Budget but the Air Force's inquiry at the Bureau.

Dr. Keddy. In the course of the negotiations with us, the Air Force went to the Bureau of the Budget and the question was, How can the Air Force help us to take care of these collections at Park Ridge? They came to the conclusion they had to have the Park Ridge facilities for their own purposes, and that leaves our collections out there without proper protection. The only thing we could do then would be to try to bring these collections to Suitland, Md. We do not have the money to pay for that very big trucking job. If we brought them here we could only lay them on steel matting which we already have. They would still be out in the open. What we previously asked the Bureau of the Budget for was funds to complete

our Suitland storage facilities so that we could put these collections at Park Ridge under cover when we brought them here.

Now, we have the facility approximately half completed, but we do not have the funds to complete it. The result is that we have fallen between the benches.

Mr. Phillips. What statement did you make to the Bureau of the Budget this year about it? Did you ask them for money to complete it?

Dr. Keddy. No, sir; in view of your committee's action.

Dr. Carmichael. We brought this action to their attention, however.

Dr. Keddy. They said that the Air Force had no authority to help us to complete the Suitland storage facility. They still claim it is the Air Force's job. The Air Force also claims they have no authority to go ahead and do it.

Mr. Phillips. I think the committee might be inclined to agree that the Air Force ought to assume some responsibility in a job that involves their own history and their own equipment.

Dr. Keddy. It pertains entirely to their own collection.

Mr. Phillips. Is there no one over there in the Air Force with any vision or feeling of responsibility?

Dr. Carmichael. The Navy has protected and cared for its planes that are in a similar situation. I have to say that certain officers in the Air Force who are connected with and interested in the Air Museum (the official appointees to the Air Museum) have been very helpful in this matter, but it has not seemed possible for them to get the official clearances to make the transfer of funds necessary.

Mr. Cotton. How did the Navy get it?

Dr. Carmichael. The Navy has stored these materials in its own facilities, but the Air Force does not wish, and cannot, apparently, continue to provide us with space in their own facilities.

Mr. Phillips. It seems to me that the Air Force is not interested.

Mr. Jonas. Would it be proper for you, Mr. Chairman, to speak to the chairman of the subcommittee dealing with the Air Force's appropriations?

Mr. Phillips. I think that it would be very appropriate.

Mr. Jonas. Doctor, I understand that you have been quoting some of my prose in your report. May I have a copy of that report?

Dr. Carmichael. It would be an honor to send it to you. We were very grateful indeed for the extremely interesting statement and comparison you made last year between the cultural work of the institution and certain other necessary work.

Mr. Jonas. The report is out?

Dr. Carmichael. The report, sir, is not out. It is in print. W 7 e usually hold it and give it to our regents when they meet the week after next.

I sent this excellent quotation to your office, sir, and it is my recollection that it was approved.

RESEARCH PROGRAMS

Mr. Jonas. I would like to ask Mr. Phillips if it is proper to ask this—anticipating that we are going to have some discussion with certain other agencies about scientific studies and investigations, would

it be proper to get from the Smithsonian Institution a list of the projects of that sort in which it is engaged?

Mr. Phillips. You will probably have that in the report?

Dr. Carmichael. Yes.

Mr. Phillips. Please place it into the record at this point.

(The matter referred to follows:)

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM

The United States National Museum has the custody of the national collections which relate to plants, animals, minerals, engineering, history, and the material culture of man through the ages. Research conducted by the staff is concerned with the classification of the objects comprising the collections, an absolute essential for their proper documentation. Once these collections are documented they serve as standards of comparison for the identification of similar objects used in all types of investigations under way in other institutions and laboratories. Inasmuch as pertinent literature cannot be located without precise knowledge of the identity of the object involved, these documented collections serve as keys to literature in the various fields of knowledge represented and thus constitute a most potent factor in helping the world of science to avoid duplication of work.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOOY

This Bureau conducts investigations in the field and in the laboratory relating to the prehistory, political systems, social structure, and linguistics of the Indians of the Americas.

ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY

The research of this Bureau is concerned with: (1) The measurement of the variations in the intensity and spectral distribution of the radiation emitted by the sun by the use of special Smithsonian methods and equipment; (2) the development of improved methods to determine the quantity and quality of this radiation which is transmitted through the atmosphere; and (3) the determination of the biochemical processes by which visible and near infrared radiation regulate growth and development in plants and the characterization of the active chemical agents which regulate such aspects of growth as leaf expansion, flowering, and fruiting of the higher plants.

NATIONAL COLLECTION OP FINE ARTS

Studies in this Bureau are concerned with the attribution and documentation of the art objects in its custody.

NATIONAL AIR MUSEUM

Studies by the staff relate to the identification of objects and their place and influence in the chronology of the development of aviation.

You will note, gentlemen, that in the work of documenting our collections we are obviously not duplicating the work of others. I may add that the greater part of our research staff is engaged in such museum activities. Research projects of the other bureaus are so highly specialized that they do not duplicate the work of others as to the goal sought and the technique involved.

Mr. Jonas. We think that there is a lot of duplication of effort on the part of a number of agencies, and I think we ought to make an effort this session to compile a list of all those projects and see if there is not some duplication.

Mr. Phillips. Does the National Science Foundation have jurisdiction over your investigations?

Dr. Carmichael. I am not a member of the National Science Foundation, but I think the National Science Foundation is at the present time interested and engaged in collecting information concerning investigations in all governmental and contract-supported research, and we are providing the National Science Foundation with information of the sort you have just asked for.

Dr. Keddy. The National Science Foundation is coordinating the whole picture of research in all the agencies. It has called on all the agencies for statistical data, forms that we have had to fill out, costs, and so forth. That will be issued by them, or the Bureau of the Budget.

ADMISSION FEE

Mr. Andrews. Have you ever given any thought to the question of charging a nominal admission fee at the Smithsonian Institution?

Dr. Carmichael. We have given a great deal of thought to it.

Mr. Andrews. Why should not some nominal fee be charged?

Dr. Carmichael. Certain of our buildings were given with the understanding that fees would not be charged; that they would be open free to the public. We have had donations and gifts of buildings, as you know. Some of the material that has been presented to us has been presented, at least I have been so informed, with the understanding that we would not charge for its exhibition.

It is also true that a great many of our visitors are not people who have large means. There are high-school seniors who come to Washington often on a shoestring, or on funds collected from chambers of commerce, Rotary Clubs, and so forth. We have many servicemen visitors also. Our collection of aircraft, I suppose, is more interesting to servicemen than anything else in Washington. They tell us at the USO that when they ask the servicemen what they would like to see here, the Smithsonian is at the top of the list.

Mr. Andrews. If you charged a nominal fee of 25 cents a visitor, how much do you tliink you would gross in a year's time?

Mr. Phillips. Would you charge the students the same amount?

Dr. Keddy. It would be a very complicated thing. We have so many buildings. Would you charge 25 cents for each building, or would you charge for the Institution? We have six monumental buildings for them to go through. We would have to have ticket sellers and takers at all of the buildings.

Mr. Andrews. It seems to me you could work out a plan to charge a nominal fee, and if you did, I think you would have an income of possibly $1,500,000 a year.

Dr. Keddy. It is not like Skyline Drive, where you just have one entrance at each end.

Mr. Andrews. Do they charge a fee at the Washington Monument'.'

Dr. Keddy. At one entrance.

Dr. Carmichael. They often have more visitors than they can deal with.

Mr. Andrews. Do you have any idea what the yearly income is?

Dr. Carmichael. I do not.

Mr. Andrews. They do not have any substantial maintenance.

Mr. Phillips. How much do they charge?

Mr. Yates. I think 10 cents.

Dr. Keddy. They have the cost of running the elevator.

Mr. Yates. Dr. Carmichael, you have stated that you have given a great deal of thought to this problem. What conclusion did you reach?

Dr. Carmichael. That it would be inadvisable.

Mr. Andrews. Personally, I would like to see you charge a small fee and use the money derived to renovate your buildings and put up new buildings.

Dr. Keddy. How will you get along when you have some buildings, where you cannot charge a fee?

Mr. Andrews. Which ones?

Dr. Keddy. The National Gallery of Art and Freer Gallery of Art.

Mr. Andrews. You say that you cannot charge a fee at two art galleries?

Dr. Keddy. That is right.

Mr. Yates. Because of existing law or terms of the bequest.

Dr. Keddy. Law and stipulations.

Mr. Yates. Could the law be changed?

Mr. Phillips. Leave the National Gallery of Art out of it because the National Gallery of Art has an endowment. Answer the question that Mr. Andrews asked about the National Museum and probably the National Air Museum. How about that?

Mr. Andrews. If you put up a building down there and put all your aircraft in it and make a charge for going into the building, you would make a nice income. You could use that money to enlarge your plant and bring it up to date. I would like to see you do it.

Dr. Keddy. As to admissions, the money received would go to the Treasuiy in the form of miscellaneous receipts and we would still have to come before this committee and ask for every dime we need for operations and maintenance.

Mr. Phillips. We can get over that hurdle when we get to it. Let us talk about whether you should do it or not.

Dr. Carmichael. Mr. Chairman, if it is the wish of Congress, we will certainly work out a plan to do it.

Mr. Cotton. This matter of the difficulty of the different buildings, would it not be perfectly possible for you to charge 10 cents and issue a pass good for 1 day and let them in any building. That would not be a complicated thing to do, would it? It would not be much of a hardship even on high-school children if they paid 10 cents and received a pass that would take them anywhere they wanted to go within the Institution?

Mr. Graf. What would you do about that pass the next day?

Mr. Yates. You could have a date on it.

Mr. Graf. With the small number of people we have and the large number of visitors, it would be quite complicated to check dates.

Mr. Andrews. You could assume that you would lose some anyway, but you will not lose much.

Mr. Phillips. Would it not be a good idea, Mr. Andrews, to have a little investigation? He says they have already gone into it, and he could furnish a statement to the committee as to the number of people and exactly where their problems are. Suppose this were applied, as you say, just to the air exhibit, which would make it possible to build a building and to take care of the exhibits.

How many people would probably go in on a basis of experience and how much would you have to charge to, more or less, make that self-sustaining? Would not that be a good idea?

Dr. Keddy. I think that is a good suggestion, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Phillips. There may be exhibits in the other buildings that legally bar a fee.

Mr. Andrews. How many visitors did you have last year down there?

41872—54—pt. 1 12

Dr. Carmichael. To the buildings we are speaking of, approximately something over 3,400,000.

Mr. Thomas. Mr. Chairman, you will recall that about 2% years ago this committee directed the Bureau of the Budget to call in all agencies of Government—not only those included in the group of independent offices, but all agencies of Government, to discuss the question of charging fees by those who did not charge fees for services, and come to some conclusion as to whether it was advisable or not. I presume this agency has gone before the Bureau of the Budget and discussed this item on at least one or two occasions, is that not so?

Dr. Keddy. That is true. We had to make a special report, as I remember, and there were three different kinds of forms which we had to fill out, and then we had hearings on them.

Mr. Thomas. What was the upshot of your hearings with the Bureau of the Budget on this subject matter?

Dr. Keddy. They never came to any conclusion on the question of admissions, or pressed us to apply charges for admission.

Mr. Phillips. I think Mr. Andrews has opened up an interesting subject and I think it has difficulties but at the same time I think it has great possibilities. We cannot make any decision now.

Why do you not make an estimate, first, as to the possibility of either covering all of your buildings with some sort of a pass or covering specific buildings, leaving out such buildings as those housing Air Force exhibits, and furnish to us just how much you would expect to get in and what the additional cost would be for doormen and printing, and so forth?

I am inclined to agree with Mr. Andrews. If you are stuck on a situation where the Air Force will not take care of its own exhibits and is not sufficiently interested to do so, then, certainly, one solution is to charge a small admission to the public which would be enough to cover even the cost of putting up the building, and to take care of its upkeep.

Will you do that for the committee?

Dr. Carmichael. Yes, sir; we will make this study but it will take some time to answer all of your questions. We will send you a report on this matter.

Mr. Yates. Which of your buildings are forbidden to charge admission fees?

Dr. Carmichael. It is certainly true of the National Art Gallery and of the Freer Art Gallery.

Mr. Yates. How many visitors do you get to the Freer Gallery?

You do not get as many visitors to that gallery, by comparison, as you do to the others?

Dr. Carmichael. Not as many as we do to some of the others. That is one thing that I am worried about, because its materials are so interesting and important.

Mr. Yates. I have been there and have seen no one there, time and again.

Dr. Carmichael. Yes, sir.

STOKAGE PROBLEMS

Mr. Yates. In the event the appropriation requested for modernization of your exhibits is approved, what happens to your surplus in your cases—the surplus specimens that you have to keep and place into packing cases and into storage?

Dr. Carmichael. They do not go into packing cases, sir, but they go into storage cases. We have some standard cases which are made in the most inexpensive possible way with two window catches of the sort that you have on the windows in this room. The size of the object determines how far apart the shelves are. The outside of these boxes has an index card indicating what is in the boxes. In other words, the staff of the Institution and the visiting scientists from the universities can still have access to the objects in these study collections. These are the study collections as contrasted with the collections available for observation by the public.

Mr. Yates. Where do you keep them?

Dr. Carmichael. They are kept wherever we have space, in hallways, in basements, in attics, in laboratories and in the inadequate storage rooms that were provided in the original planning of the building.

Mr. Yates. What portion of your space is devoted to storage of this type.

Dr. Carmichael. Only about one-seventh of our objects are on display, but of course, the objects that are on display take much more space. So, I would not be able to answer your question accurately. I would say that it is largely in attics, basements, laboratories and laboratory halls and not in space that could be used for other purposes.

Mr. Yates. Are you paying any storage charges?

Dr. Carmichael. I think we are at the present time not paying any money for storage charges. Is that not correct, Dr. Keddy?

Dr. Keddy. That is correct.

Mr. Yates. Do you anticipate that you will be paying such charges in the future?

Dr. Keddy. We will try not to.

Mr. Yates. Have the demands for storage required you to close down any of your exhibits?

Dr. Carmichael. Not in my time. I believe in the history of the institution this may have been done.

Dr. Keddy. I would like to amend that, if I may. Before Dr. Carmichael was here, we took the entire hall that used to be known as the Coal Hall. It housed the mineral extractive industries, and we had to transform that into a warehouse for study collections. We have done that with the approval of the committee. This committee gave us the funds to do it. That was an entire hall in the Arts and Industries Building.

LIGHTING SYSTEM

Mr. Yates. What are the hours during which your exhibits are open?

Dr Carmichael. They are open every day of the year except Christmas Day. They are open Sundays, the 4th of July and every day of the year from 9 a. m. to 4:30 p. m.

Mr. Yates. This lighting problem which you have spoken about is one primarily of lighting the space during the daytime hours, is it not?

Dr. Carmichael. That is true, on dark days and during early dusk. There is one item that we are requesting lighting for here in a hall now 102 years old that has never had any lighting of any sort in it. There were no kerosene lamps or gas used in it in its early existence or electricity.

Mr. Yates. The difficulty you have really is because of the architecture of the museum itself, is it not? It is due to the fact that you have a building where you are using small windows to display some of your exhibits?

Dr. Carmichael. Yes, sir; that is true.

Mr. Yates. Would it be better to change the type of windows that you have, to windows that will permit sunlight or expand the size of the windows? Would that be cheaper than putting in a new lighting system?

Dr. Carmichael. I do not think so. Modern museums are built largely without windows so that the lighting can be constant throughout the day and so that shadows can be controlled. The tendency in modern museums like the lighting of the National Gallery is toward structures without windows and the use of skylights which provide a particular area of illumination both from natural and artificial light.

admission fee

Mr. Yates. Do the national museums of other countries make-charges for admission?

Dr. Carmichael. The ones that I have been in do not.

Mr. Yates. What countries are those?

Dr. Kellogg. I can tell you the ones I have been in. I have been in those in England, France, Holland, Sweden, and Norway.

Mr. Yates. It seems to me that every museum I went into in Europe made a charge.

Dr. Kellogg. I am speaking of the natural history museums where-there was no charge.

Mr. Phillips. The London Museum does not make a charge?

Dr. Kellogg. I am speaking of the natural history museums.

Mr. Yates. That is only one part of the museum.

Dr. Kellogg. That is true, but I am talking about museums of the-natural sciences.

Mr. Yates. But, you exhibit a lot more than natural sciences.. For instance, you have an art exhibit as part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Dr. Carmichael. Yes, but that is only a small part. It should be-better displayed than it is.

Mr. Jonas. Mr. Yates, will you yield for one observation?

Mr. Yates. Yes.

Mr. Jonas. Is not there this difference: Every American cannot possibly come to Washington to go through this museum, and it seems to me that those who do have an opportunity to go through it should pay a fairly nominal fee to help take care of the upkeep.

Mr. Phillips. That is worth looking into.

Mr. Andrews. A lot of people who come here are on vacation, and many of them will drive up there and pay a cabdriver $2 or $3 to go in and see for free what would be well worth a good fee. I would not advocate a big fee but in view of the fact that the buildings are so old and so much money is needed to rebuild or rehabilitate them, I think you ought to have a little income with which to do it, .and I would like to see you get it.

NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS

Mr. Yates. I have one more question: In the report that was made "by the Commission on Fine Arts entitled "Arts and Government," the suggestion is made with respect to the National Collection of Fine Arts, which is in your jurisdiction, that it might be advantageous to collect contemporary art for the Institution and open such art exhibits to the public. Do you have any idea on that at all? Have you read the report of the Commission?

Dr. Carmichael. Yes, sir.

Mr. Yates. What is your view on that?

Dr. Carmichael. My view is that that is a very good idea. We do have one small gallery that is available for changing exhibits and we have had modern exhibits in this gallery. We have to be careful about which modern exhibits we display so that we will not be accused of being unfair from a commercial point of view to certain groups and so on. We may have emphasized that part of modern ■art that is related to historic occasions or to special international gatherings and so on, but we certainly have no prejudices against modern art as such. I hope, sir; that sometime in this city there may be a new art gallery that will show three sorts of objects: One, arts and crafts; two, pictures of historic importance to the Nation, but possibly not fine or great art from the standpoint of technical and esthetic evaluation, and art that is a portrayal of great militant and civil leaders and so on; three, a gallery that can be used for the display of active living art by contemporaneous Americans and others.

Mr. Yates. This was the suggestion that was made to me in Chicago by one who is affiliated with the Chicago Art Institute. I asked him why the National Gallery of Art did not show contemporary art and he said he did not think it should, and I was very much startled. He said, for example, in France that they worked out the system where the Louvre has art work that is considered to be art which has proved itself and the contemporary art is shown in another building.

Dr. Carmichael. That is in the Luxembourg.

Mr. Yates. And when it achieves a place in the art world, it is then moved over to the Louvre in a permanent collection.

Dr. Carmichael. Yes, sir.

Mr. Yates. I think, perhaps, that is what the President's Commission had in mind when it suggested that your gallery be made a supplement to the National Gallery.

Dr. Carmichael. Yes, sir.

Mr. Yates. That as all I have, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Andrews. I do not know of any place in town that does not make a charge for admissions except Smithsonian and the National Art Gallery.

Dr. Carmichael. There is the Botanic Garden, the Arboretum and the Capitol Building itself, and likewise the Lincoln Memorial. The library of Congress does not charge an admission fee and it has large exhibits.

Mr. Andrews. That is different. People go in there to use it.

Dr. Carmichael. That is true. I took my daughter through the Library of Congress just the other day, and there is no charge made there for their many important museum exhibits.

Air. Phillips. What is the difference between your situation and the National Parks that Mr. Andrews mentioned. They ran for years without a fee, and finally came to the conclusion, not only from the standpoint of income but also from the matter of control, that the Park Service should charge a small fee.

Air. Andrews. Who owns and operates the Ford Theater down there?

Dr. Carmichael. The National Park Service.

Mr. Andrews. They make a charge?

Dr. Keddy. They do, that is right.

Mr. Andrews. They make a charge of 10 cents, if I am not mistaken.

Mr. Yates. I would be opposed to a 25-cent charge but I think a dime is enough.

Mr. Phillips. We thank you gentlemen very much.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

WITNESSES

DAVID E. FINLEY, DIRECTOR

HUNTINGTON CAIRNS, SECRETARY

ERNEST R. FEIDLER, ADMINISTRATOR

GEORGE T. HECKERT, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR

LLOYD D. HAYES, BUDGET ANALYST

Amounts available for obligation

Appropriation or estimate

Unobligated balance, estimated savings

Obligations incurred

1953 actual

$1,428.050 -13,826

1,414,224

1954 estimate

$1,275,000

1,275,000

1955 estimate

$1, 300, 000

1,300,000

Obligations by activities

(