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Wednesday, January 26, 1949. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

STATEMENT OF DR. ALEXANDER WETMORE, SECRETARY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION; ACCOMPANIED BY J. E. GRAF, ASSISTANT SECRETARY; DR. J. L. KEDDY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY; C, W. MITMAN, ASSISTANT TO THE SECRETARY FOR THE AIR MUSEUM; DR. REMINGTON KELLOGG, DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM; W. H. HOOVER, ACTING DIRECTOR, ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY; DR. F. H. H. ROBERTS, JR., ACTING DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY; W. P. TRUE, CHIEF, EDITORIAL DIVISION; AND L. L. OLIVER, SUPERINTENDENT OF BUILDINGS AND LABOR

Salaries and Expenses

STANDARD CLASSIFICATION SCHEDULE Salaries and expenses

Estimate, 1949

Estimate, 1950

Increase (+)

or decrease (—)

01 Personal services:

At rates prior to Public Law 900 Cost of Public Law 900

02 Travel

03 Transportation of thinprs

04 \ Communication services

05 " Rents and utility services

06 Printing and-binding

07 Other contractual services

08 Supplies and materials

09 Equipment

Total estimate

1, 677,077

170, 000

13, 590

51,000

7,250

93, 250

103,000

39, 986

46,105

56. 242

$1, 689, 687

176, 000

13, 530

51,003

7,250

117,140

103,030

39, 986

46,195

56, 242

2, 257, 500

2,300, 000

+$12, 610 +6, 000 0 0 0 +23, 890 0 0 0 0

42, 500

Mr. Thomas. Gentlemen of the committee, we will come to order.

We have Dr. Wetmore and his staff from the Smithsonian Institution.

Gentlemen, we are delighted to have you all here.

Doctor, do you have a statement you would like to give us?

We will be delighted to hear you and without any interruptions from any of us.

Dr. Wetmore. Mr. Chairman, I shall be delighted to meet your wishes as far as I may.

HISTORY OF SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

The Smithsonian Institution, you will recall, had its beginnings in the gift of an Englishman, James Smithson, to this Nation, who presented his entire lortune to found, in the city of Washington, an institution to bear his name, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.

85904—49—pt. 1-

The Smithsonian is now in its one hundred and third year, and we are looking forward with anticipation to activities in the new century of our being.

The Smithsonian Institution is far more than the group of buildings which you see on the Mall. It is recognized universally throughout our country as a part of cultural America and a source of scientific information in many fields which are of interest and use to mankind.

This is a scientific age in which we find ourselves. You will recall the recent report of the President's Scientific Research Board on science and public policy. There is one statement there that I would like to quote very briefly, namely:

The security and prosperity of the United States today depends as never before upon the rapid extension of scientific knowledge. So important, in fact, has this extension become that it may reasonably be said to be a major factor in national survival.

We in the Smithsonian feel and know that we have a definite part ir this extension of scientific investigation. As part of our activities in the more than 100 years of om existence, we have accumulated collections in science and in art that comprise at the present time more than 25 million individual items, upon which no cash value may be placed. I can only say that if I were to have available now a sum equivalent to the present amount of the national debt, it would be absolutely impossible for me to duplicate what we have in our custody in the Smithsonian at the present time. I say that advisedly, because there are so many unique articles included which have no duplication anywhere. Some of them concern our national history—I am thinking now of the original Star-Spangled Banner, which hangs in one of our halls just behind the Kitty Hawk plane, which one of the committee members mentioned to me a while ago.

There is the sword of Washington. There are some 150,000 to 200,000 type specimens in various branches of biology, a typo being the individual object or specimen upon which a new species or kind has been based that serves from then on as a standard for the identification of others of the same kind. These types are irreplaceable.

I say, therefore, when I am asked to put a cash value on these collections, as sometimes I am asked, that it is upward of half a billion dollars, but that they could not be replaced for any sum of money.

ADDITIONS TO COLLECTIOXS

The additions to these collections in the last fiscal year have been in many fields—insects, airplanes, birds, mammals, historical objects, a multitude of other things—and comprise slightly more than 500,000 individual specimens. We refuse, in the gifts that are offered to us, more than we accept. We do that advisedly. We take only those things that are worthy of permanent preservation.

RESEARCH

Research on these collections, on the part of our staff and of the scientists who visit us, is steadily continuing and is a source of regular publications in the scientific field that are used for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, for the betterment of our own people and those elsewhere in the world.

VISITORS

We are popular with our visitors. Last year we had 2,393,499 in the museum halls.

ACTIVITIES

We are carrying on scientific research constantly. The Astro-physical Observatory is engaged primarily in the measurement and study of radiation from the sun on which all life on earth depends. As part of its investigations at the moment, it is determining now for the Quartermaster Department of the Army those elements in light which cause the deterioration of fabrics.

By direction of Congress, we have under organization a new activity, the National Air Museum, which is progressing properly and on which we will submit a formal report to the Congress before the close of the present session.

Another new activity assigned to us, the Canal Zone biological area, in the Canal Zone of Panama, located on Barro Colorado Island in Gatun Lake, has been completely integrated with our administration now and is operating successfully.

One further statement relative to the Canal Zone biological area: In its operation, we have cooperation from Harvard University, from the University of Chicago, from the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Zoological Society. It is a place to which professors and students from here in the United States may go and live comfortably under good conditions, good food, good water, with the same expectation of health, although in the midst of a tropical jungle, that they would encounter here at home. The island is free of malaria and free of dysentery, so that it is possible for one of no tropical experience, therefore, to carry on successfully work that otherwise might be done only with danger to one's health.

Our scientific field investigations continue over a wide area. I will mention briefly an expedition to Arnhem land, in northern Australia, an area that has been closed by the Australian Government for many years as a reserve for the aboriginal blacks, and to which we have had access through an arrangement with the governmental officials. We have cooperated in this expedition with the National Geographic Society here in Washington and with scientist of the Australian Government.

Another expedition of ours at the moment is in Nepal in northern India. In this we are cooperating with the National Geographic Society and with Yale University.

We have had friendly contact with the Maharaja, who for the first time has allowed white men to go into the eastern and western sections of his country. Heretofore parties have been permitted to go up a main central valley to the capital city of Kathmandu, but no farther. One of our men now is just coming out of the western area, which so far as we know has not been seen by white man before. He has been making natural, history collections, getting a fine lot of photographs, and other records of scientific value.

We have made a variety of studies on the fossil life of the western half of our country this past season—dinosaurs, fossil mammals, invertebrate creatures of various kinds, many of them heretofore unknown to science.

One of our naturalists was allowed to accompany an icebreaker to the Arctic islands north of Canada this past summer, and brought back materials of great value.

Another investigator, an archeologist, worked for over 2 months at Frobisher Bay, on Baffin Island, where he found the remains of Eskimo people in an area that has not been inhabited by man within the period of human historical record.

Another interesting thing is concerned with the development of oil in Saudi Arabia. Owing to that development and the consequent increase in population, there has been necessity for finding further food supplies. Fish offer such an opportunity. At the invitation of the Arabian-American Oil Co., and with their support as to costs, we had a naturalist working in the Persian Gulf for several months making collections of fishes there, to determine what kinds were found and in that way to know which kinds might be of value as human food.

GROWTH OF THE INSTITUTION

In other statements before this committee, I have pointed out to you that during the war period the Smithsonian Institution had no growth, but rather a recession from which we have never fully recovered, although we have had very friendly treatment by this committee in recent years.

As an example of that, I have here a tabulation which shows our situation as to employment—man-hours of service available to us— in the period from 1939 projected on up to the present estimates for 1950.

PERSONNEL

In 1939 we had available 20,372 man-hours per week, under a 44-hour week for part of the staff and 39 for the rest.

In 1943, under a 48-hour week, our man-hour schedule ran 22,464 man-hours per week. This present year—1949 with a 40-hour week for all, we will run 20,400 man-hours per week available. In other words, from the standpoint of man-hours available we are practically where we were in 1939, although in the meanwhile our staff has increased numerically and our responsibilities have greatly increased.

In the last 20 or 25 years, our responsibilities relative to the care of collections and otber duties have increased 100 percent.

Our personnel at the same time, has grown a little over 50 percent; moreover, the man-hours in the past 10 years, have remained practically stationary—that is, the amount of service we have available from the entire staff.

ESTIMATES OF EXPENDITURES

The estimates that we submit here, coming through the Bureau of the Budget, indicate an actual increase, for 1950 over 1949, of $42,500. That sum may seem a fair amount. Actually, it is entirely absorbed in mandatory expenditures that we will have to incur which have been beyond our control. We have allotted to us $18,610 for personal services, including what is required for the Public Law 900—the Pay Act; $12,610 of this sum is for in-grade or Ramspeck promotions, under Public Law 200.

Our actual expenditures for 1950, for in-grade promotions, will be approximately $40,000 more, an added charge which we will have to absorb.

INDEPENDENT OFFICES APPROPRIATION BILL, 195 0

35

Also, we will have to pay in 1950 approximately $15,000 in terminal leave, for which we have no funds budgeted at the present time. That will have to be met through curtailment of other activities.

$6,000 of the $18,610 is supplemental to the amount indicated to be available for 1949 under Public Law 900. You will recall that this fiscal year, the increase in pay was to begin the first pay period after June 30, 1948, which meant that it was not operative over the whole year. In 1950 we will have 26 pay periods, so the $6,000 additional there is necessary to meet that extra cost. The situation as to personnel including number of weekly man-hours of service and average salary for the period 1939-50 is shown in the following table:

Smithsonian Institution: Comparsion of personal services and appropriations

Man-hours per week

Net positions

Appropriation

Average salary

1939

1. 44-hour week for 270.5 positions in the CPC service and a 39-hour week for 187.9 positions in the administrative, professional, and sub professional services:

Personal services

Total appropriation

1940

2. 44-hour week for 275.5 positions in the CPC service and a 39-hour week for 193 positions in the administrative, professional, and subprofessional services:

Personal services

Total appropriation

19, 230

1942

3. 44-hour week for all, beginning Jan. 26, 1942:

Personal services

Total appropriation

1943

48-hour week for all, beginning Dec. 26, 1942:

Personal services

Total appropriation :

22,464

1946

6. 40-hour week for all, beginning Sept. 5, 1945, except guards who continued on 48-hour week until 1947:

Personal services

Total appropriation

17, 744

425.0

1947

6. 40-hour week for all. Includes 62 positions to place guards on 40-hour week and provide for return of veterans:

Personal services

Total appropriation

19, 400

40-hour week for all:

Personal services

Total appropriation.

1948

2 19, 000

8. 40-hour week for all:

Personal servLes

Total appropriation.

3 20, 400

40-hour week for all:

Personal services

Total appropriation.

19, 920

$817, 316 1,021,165

846,329 1,328.420

866,529 1,115, 022

991,955 1,182,080

1,136, 045 1,357, 561

1, 423, 420 1, 632, 912

1, 516, 392 1,800, 312

4 1,847,077 2, 257, 500

1, 865, 687 2,300,000

$1, 761

1,851

2,077

3,152

3,587

1 Personnel ceilings fixed by Budget Bureau greatly reduced number of positions 1944-46.

2 Excludes 6 positions in new bureau, National Air Museum, involving 240 hours per week.

3 Excludes 22 positions in National Air Museum, involving 880 hours per week.

* Includes supplemental estimate of $167,500 for cost of Public Law 900 (Increased Pay Act).

The other expenditures extimated additional for 1950 arc under

"Rents and utility services,'' amounting to $23,890.

Three thousand four hundred and ten dollars of that amount is for .an additional cost of electricity due to recent increases in rates, which became effective July 21 last. This increase is based on our average annual consumption at the new rates.

The remaining sum, $20,480, is for additional rental at the Orchard Place Airport near Park Ridge, 111., where the materials that bave been assembled from the National Air Museum are stored.

We are jus! entering into that operation, and the figure we estimated originally of $75,000 was based on the best data available at the time. Now that we have undertaken this responsibility, we have been informed that there will be an increase in the rate charged so that this additional sum will be necessary.

According to our estimates, to operate under the funds recommended for 1950, we will have to make a reduction of about 12 positions in the staff carried during the present fiscal year. This is caused by the necessity of absorbing terminal leave cost and a major part of the ingrade promotions. I point this out merely to indicate that we are operating at a very dangerous level and one in which curtailment of any kind would be extremely serious for us.

I may say also that at the present time our status as to inventories of supplies and materials for current operation—I am speaking of paints, lumber, and all the many things necessary for the maintenance of buildings—are at the lowest ebb that I have ever seen them during the 25 years that I have been in the Smithsonian.

That completes my statement, sir.

Mr. Thomas. Doctor, that was a very fine, terse, analytical statement.

You are running one of the greatest institutions in the country and I think it is perhaps the most popular one in Washington, particularly that part of your activity dealing with the operation of the Museum.

Young folks, middle-aged folks, old folks—they all like to go over there. I am afraid the public at large has little knowledge, and certainly less appreciation, for your other activities, and I am inclined to think that they certainly overlap with one or a half dozen more agencies of government. I, for one, think that these duplications, to some degree, should certainly cease to exist.

SALARIES AND EXPENSES

If you will turn to page 309 of the subcommittee print, I would like to briefly run over the language with you. It reads as follows:

Salaries and expenses, Smithsonian Institution: For all lesser expenses for the preservation, exhibition, and increase of collections from the surveying and exploring expeditions of the Government and from other sources.

That language is broad enough to cover perhaps the universe.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE

I will read further:

For the system of international exchanges between the United States and foreign countries.

Just what does that language mean?

Dr. Wetmore. That is to cover the operation of the International Exchange Service. The International Exchange Service as stipulated by treaties and agreements entered into by our Government, receives the official governmental documents and scientific publications issued throughout this country and forwards them to the other countries of the world for distribution there to certain desginated depositories where their availability is assured. We also receive foreign publications for transmission to American institutions and agencies. The idea underlying this whole operation is exchange, the nations sending their publications in order to receive those of other nations.

DISTRIBUTION OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS

Mr. Thomas. What is the type and nature of those scientific papers that you are distributing?

Dr. Wetmore. They include state papers of all kinds, the Congressional Record, the publications of all the governmental departments that are issued officially. We act merely as forwarding agent in this operation which was first established by the Treatv of Brussels in 1886.

Mr. Thomas. You do not list that as one of your activities. How many people do you have working in that Service, and what is the total cost to the Government? And while you are looking up that information, be thinking up an answer to this question: Just what earthly justification do you have for doing that type of work? People who assemble that information and print it and bind it, why in the world can they not send it out? If that is not a useless activity, I have never heard of one.

Dr. Wetmore. This is done at considerably less cost for transportation expenses alone, than it would be if these other agencies were to do this individually. We accumulate the materials, ship them by ocean freight, for the most part, to the countries designated, and the agencies of the countries concerned receive them and distribute them. Shipments go to 96 approved centers throughout the world.

Mr. Thomas. Whom do you get information from? What pamphlets do you receive from various agencies? They have to package it and send it to you and so on—the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, all the various laboratories of the Navy, and I guess there are ten of them. Give us some information on it.

Dr. Keddy. The International Exchange Service is authorized under the original law. That service began in a moderate way shortly after the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1886 the Brussels Convention, signed by many of the nations of the world, gave great impetus to the international distribution of parliamentary, scientific and literary publications on a world-wide basis.

Mr. Thomas. First, will you give me a clear statement of how many employees you have working in this division and how much it costs per year to operate it?

Dr. Keddy. There are 11 people in the division and their salaries, in 1950, will be $24,551. The transportation item, for shipping the exchanges, is $36,000 a year.

Mr. Thomas. To and from where?

Dr. Keddy. From the United States to every nation in the world that exchanges such materials with this country.

Mr. Thomas. Who pays the transportation and handling costs of the various agencies of Government who print anpl accumulate this information and then ship it 01 bring it over to your place?

Dr. Keddy. The agencies pay for printing. They are at no expense for placing it in our hands since the copies required for making up Government sets are sent directly to us by the Public Printer.

Mr. Thomas. They pay it?

Dr. Keddy. Of course, most of this is accumulated here in Washington. The material printed at the Government Printing Office comes to us directly from the latter agency.

Mr. Thomas. I understand, but it has to be handled here in Washington.

Dr. Keddy. Only by the Government Printing Office trucks.

Air. Graf. Air. Chairman, the Exchange Service includes a great deal wider field than that covered by Federal publications. We not only ship the official Government publications, that is, all material printed under directions of Congress, but beyond that we receive publications from the experiment stations and universities from all parts of this country, which are transmitted abroad.

Mr. Thomas. What I am leading up to is this: let me get that figure in my mind. Eleven employees with a total cost of $24,551.

Dr. Keddy. Yes.

Mr. Thomas. Is that an average salary?

Dr. Keddy. No, that is the salaries we are going to have to pay them in 1950.

Mr. Thomas. That is an average salary of about $2,500 per year?

Dr. Keddy. Yes.

Mr. Thomas. You have a transportation cost of $36,000 on top of that,

Dr. Keddy. That is right,

Mr. Thomas. Do you have any supply and material costs for that operation?

Dr. Keddy. $200 for paper and twine.

Mr. Thomas. In other words, you have about $61,400 cost for that job. Put the name of the various Government installations in the record, the various Government agencies who do the printing and binding and accumulation of these scientific papers.

Dr. Keddy. There are five classes: (1) those of the United States Government printed by order of Congress and forwarded in compliance with formal agreements; (2) parliamentary journals such as the Congressional Record and Federal Register; (3) those of various governmental agencies sent on exchange to similar agencies of foreign governments, educational institutions, agricultural research establishments, organizations and learned societies and scientists throughout the world; (4) those of educational institutions, organizations and learned societies sent on exchange; and (5) the foreign publications received in exchange.

Mr. Thomas. Will you give us a list of those Government agencies who do all this research?

Dr. Keddy. Well, all of the 10 executive departments.

Mr. Thomas. Well, now, please, I have asked you three times. If you have 11 people over there doing this work, there ought to be somebody here who knows the name of the ageneies and the name and title of the papers and the number of them. Do you have that information?

Mr. Graf. We can get that information and put it in the record.

Mr. Thomas. No, we want it now.

Dr. Keddy. The publications are those selected by the Library of Congress to implement treaties and agreements. We simply execute their orders, and Congress runs the Library of Congress.

Mr. Thomas. Do you know whether or not these various governmental installations, such as the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, and some 50 or 75 others I can mention, also send out these publications?

Dr. Keddy. The Library of Congress determines the scope of Government sets. We have no control of subsidiary shipment by individuals or agencies.

Mr. Graf. Every publication issued by authority of Congress is transmitted through the Exchange Service.

Mr. Thomas. What I am asking you, gentlemen, is simply this: Do you know whether or not the agency itself such as the Atomic Energy Commission, who prints this information originally, also sends it out.

Dr. Wetmore. They do not send to the official governmental depositories. You see, these goernmental depositories are arranged under a treaty. Agencies receive reports of our shipments so they know what is forwarded officially.

Dr. Keddy. That is to avoid duplication. That is the reason it is centralized that way.

Mr. Thomas. Do you know, Doctor, any good reason why the agency that really accumulates the information and prints it and binds it, and so, should not send it out itself rather than packaging it and transporting it over to your place to be sent out? I mean it is being handled twice where it could be handled once. Is that right?

Dr. Wetmore. I do not like to dispute you on that, Mr. Chairman, but I do not agree with you.

Mr. Thomas. Just hide your likes and dislikes. Just lay it on the line. That is all we want.

Mr. Graf. If we were sending this material by individual institutions, we would have a very haphazard distribution, and we would never be certain to have our literature in the centers in which we want it.

All countries are doing this, and there is a very good reason for it. If we want the other nations to understand us they should have ready access to our parliamentary, scientific and cultural publications.

Mr. Thomas. It is not a question of doing it or failing to do it, it is the question of doing it in the most economical way. Can you give me any good reason why this should be handled two or three times rather than just one time?

Mr. Graf. If this material is packed in boxes, and shipped to one agency, it can be handled a great deal easier and more economically on this side and certainly handled a great deal easier and more systematically on the other side. It can be done this way if it comes from

one source. Otherwise, they would have numerous small packages from many agencies. Boxes move by ocean freight at 4 cents per pound whereas numerous smaller shipments would go by mail at 12 cents per pound.

Dr. Wetmore. Furthermore, we receive from these other countries their official documents, which go to the Library of Congress.

Dr. Keddy. It is entirely analagous to the Bureau of Federal Supply. The Bureau of Federal Supply is a central procurement agency. The International Exchange Service, on the other hand, is a central distribution agency.

Mr. Thomas. Of course, your method of operation is just as old and out of date as your law was 60 years ago.

Dr. Keddy. Oh. no; it is not. New agreements are being made regularly by the State Department. We work on details to keep our operations abreast of developments and to cut down expenses-Mr. Thomas. Well, here is a good place to start right here. Dr. Keddy. We have already made several reductions in expenses.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Mr. Thomas. All right. The next language—

for anthropological research among the American Indians and the natives of Hawaii, and the excavation and preservation of archeological remains.

Dr. Wetmore. That is the authority for the operation of the Bureau of American Ethnology, which carries on investigations among the American Indians. The wording "and natives of Hawaii" involves very little work, since to date we have not made many studies in that part of our Nation.

Mr. Thomas. Just what do you do under that language?

Dr. Wetmore. The Bureau of American Ethnology is currently concerned with researches on the American Indian, present and past. Living groups are studied to obtain facts about their languages, institutions, social customs, beliefs, native crafts, arts, industries, and physical characteristics. To understand properly the living peoples it is essential to know their past. Archeological explorations and excavations provide information on their origin, development, and relationships in pre-Columbian times.

These studies develop the basic materials from which are derived the knowledge of how the first Americans adapted themselves to environmental extremes, devised ways and means to faeilitate the art of living, developed industry and trade, and continually effected successful adjustments in their social, economic, and political institutions, and in their intertribal relations. This knowledge contributes to improvements in the promotion and protection of agriculture, irrigation, the industries, arts and public health, and in the development of new procedures for improving race relationships and the administration of national minorities. Such knowledge likewise furthers study of human survival; throws light on the great problems of racial characters, both physical and mental, miscegenation, and immunity to various diseases; and aids public administrators, teachers, missionaries, and others whose work brings them in contact with native peoples.

Archeological researches provide the perspective needed to view the field as a whole, but they also furnish evidence helpful in the solution of specific problems. Records of a succession of prehistoric floods,

of silting and soil erosion, of recurrent droughts and climatic fluctuations revealed by excavations in the western plains have aided investigators striving to solve modern problems arising from similar phenomena. The archeological record of land utilization of the specialization of corn and other domestic food crops, and of shifting populations under varying environmental conditions contributes basic information helpful in the comprehension of modern settlement problems. Human skeletal material taken from archeological sites adds to medical knowledge through the record in bone pathology of prehistoric diseases which ran their course untreated. The evidence of relative chronology in the development of cultural stages supplies the geologist with a gage that is invaluable in assigning surficial deposits to their proper place in the sequence of soils, artifacts serving as the fossils necessary to such a determination.

Mr. Thomas. How long have you been carrying on these investigations, Doctor?

Dr. Wetmore. These studies began in 1879, under this heading. Of course, some of the earliest studies of the Smithsonian Institution were in this field. Our first publication of any moment, issued about 1851—

Mr. Thomas. Well, this is going to be a continuing activity for the next hundred years?

Dr. Wetmore. I would assume that it would be, and a very important one.

Mr. Thomas. You want us to give you the money to continue just that long?

Dr. Wetmore. Yes, sir. It is a very highly important cultural research, sir, one that bears on the previous history of this country, the people who were here before us, and how they lived under the conditions surrounding them. We can learn much about some of the diseases they suffered by an examination of skeletal material.

Mr. Thomas. Well, now, what does it cost you?

Dr. Keddy. In 1950, $68,055.

Mr. Thomas. How many employees?

Dr. Keddy. Thirteen people. Total salaries, $66,505. Other obligations, $1,550.

Mr. Thomas. How many of them are stationed in the United States?

Dr. Keddy. Do you mean how many are in the United States right now?

Mr. Thomas. Yes, sir.

Dr. Keddy. Dr. Stirling is temporarily in Panama. The 13 positions are all located here. They are departmental people.

Dr. Wetmore. They are all stationed here ia Washington.

WORK OF ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY

Mr. Thomas. What about the next language involving the laboratories?

Dr. Wetmore. The Astrophysical Observatory with headquarters in Washington carries on observations and measurements on the radiation from the sun and the other heavenly bodies. We have an observatory at the present time at Calama, Chile, in the Southern Hemisphere, and one in California. Both are located on the desert

mountains, where the air is constantly clear so that it is possible to make a daily record of the radiation from the sun. The figures are transmitted here to Washington for scientific study and analysis.

Mr. Thomas. What duplication exists between that and the IS aval Observatory?

Dr. Wetmore. None at all, sir. The fields are different.

Dr. Keddy. The ISlavy is interested in astrophysics from the standpoint of chronometry, the measurement of time. We are interested in the matter of measuring solar radiation. You and I would not be here if we did not have solar radiation. Without the sun there would be no life on earth. Our study is entirely different, the Naval Observatory is measuring time and studying the measurement of time and we are measuring the wave lengths of light, because it is on the basis of those wave lengths that human life, animal life, and plant life on earth can continue.

Mr. Thomas. What agencies of Government are interested in your work?

Dr. Wetmore. Well, the Weather Bureau has an interest in it. At the present time we have a contract with the Quartermaster Department of the Army for some special investigation on those elements in light and humidity which cause rapid break-down in fabrics. We have a temporary laboratory in Miami for this particular work.

Mr. Thomas. Is not the Advisory Committee on Aeronautics doing this same work?

Dr. Wetmore. No, sir. I can say that definitely, because I am on that Board.

Mr. Thomas. What private institutions in the United States are engaged in this work?

Dr. W t etmore. There is no private institution that exactly duplicates what we are doing in this field.

Mr. Thomas. Has not the University of California a big laboratory engaging in this same work?

Dr. Wetmore. Not in the same way; no, sir.

Mr. Thomas. What do you mean not in the same way?

Dr. Wetmore. They are not doing exactly the same thing we are doing. They are concerned with a general astronomical study of heavenly bodies; we are interested only in one aspect of astrophysics.

Mr. Chairman, in none of this scientific work, have we any interest whatever in duplicating what is being done through any other agency. There may be agencies that are carrying on more or less parallel investigations on different phases, but they do not duplicate.

Mr. Thomas. Well, now, you know exactly what agencies of Government are carrying on parallel work to yours. Why not list them right here? There arc numerous agencies. The Army has done it, the Navy is doing it, and to some extent, I believe, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics is doing it. They have some new equipment there in which they are certainly duplicating your efforts.

Dr. Wetmore. They are not in our identical field.

Mr. Thomas. What do you mean by "identical field"?

Dr. Wetmore. First let me say that parallel investigations are quite different from duplication. In our study of solar radiation we have developed special apparatus that is made only in our own instrument shops for this specific type of work and no one else is

doing that. They may be studying the light of the sun, but for other purposes, and by other means, and through other measures.

Mr. Thomas. Well, the Army Air Force is tremendously interested in this subject, is it not?

Dr. Wetmoee. Through their interest in weather they are interested in the meteorological aspects of it, of course. Other agencies do not hesitate to call on us when they have need for the information we possess, and we never hesitate to cooperate or provide information requested.

Mr. Thomas. That is, of course, exactly the way it should be.

Dr. Wetmore. We cooperate with all interested scientists or agencies.

Mr. Thomas. Who are the recipients? Who uses the data that you produce? Where do you send them?

Dr. Wetmore. I will ask Mr. Hoover to make a statement.

Mr. Hoover. The Weather Bureau uses our data and various universities have called on us for the data in order to correlate the solar radiation with other conditions in which they are interested.

Mr. Thomas. Well, now, how many employees will that require, again?

Dr. Keddy. In the Astro physical Observatory there are 13 people, at a cost of $55,947, in the department, and 10 people in the field, at $36,911, which makes a total of 23 people at $92,858.

For travel, $4,000. You see, we have a station in Calama, Chile. This is to cover transfers of personnel.

Mr. Thomas. Where is your laboratory in Chile?

Dr. Keddy. We have three field stations, one at Calama, Chile, one at Table Mountain, Calif., and the other at Miami, Fla.

Mr. Thomas. Florida, California, and Chile.

Dr. Keddy. Other obligations will total $9,800, giving a grand total of $102,658.

Dr. Wetmore. We have one observatory in the Southern Hemisphere and one in the Northern, so as to make certain of having a clear observation at least once in each 24 hours, so that there will be no break in the records which now cover nearly 30 years.

BARRO COLORADO ISLAND LABORATORY

Mr. Thomas. The next language is-—

for the administration and for the construction and maintenance of laboratory and other facilities on Barro Colorado Island in the Canal Zone.

What do you do there?

Dr. Wetmore. That is for the laboratory in the Canal Zone. It is for biological and other studies in a primitive jungle area, and has been maintained since 1923. It was placed under our direction by an Executive order in 1946.

We are spending there $5,000 a year from appropriated funds. There is no cost for personnel included.

Mr. Thomas. The total cost is only $5,000 a year?

Dr. Wetmore. Out of this appropriation, yes, sir.

Mr. Thomas. Where do you get the remainder of your funds?

Dr. Wetmore. It comes from contributions from interested agencies outside.

Mr. Thomas. Do you moan governmental or private agencies?

Dr. Wetmore. Private institutions.

Mr. Thomas. What is the nature of your activities down there? When you say "biological research," that covers everything.

Dr. Wetmore. At the present moment there are two men there from the Naval Research Laboratory who are checking on some scientific studies on metabolism, utilization of food and other elements. These studies are being made in the tropics to check against a similar series of studies underway in the far north. We have one installation at Barro Colorado for testing the efficiency of woods impregnated with various substances against termites. There is also a very important continuing study on fruitfles. There are men going down there presently to carry on general biological studies. They are college professors and will use the results of their studies in their teaching in colleges.

During the war the Office of Scientific Research and Development did considerable work there relating to deterioration of optical glass and other substances through molds and fungi. That work was of such interest that Eastman Kodak Co. is now continuing this work on the island.

Mr. Thomas. The Agricultural Department is down there all the time, is it not?

Dr. Wetmore. We cooperate with Agriculture, too, in this.

Mr. Thomas. What do you mean you cooperate? How many people do they keep down there?

Dr. Wetmore. They have one man in Panama permanently, and use this island as an experiment station for some of their work.

removal of limitations

Mr. Thomas. I see on page 310 of the subcommittee print you are removing two limitations. Why is that?

Dr. Keddy. That was suggested by the Bureau of the because the limitation was lumecessary.

Mr. Thomas. The old language reads:

Printing and binding not exceeding $150,000, of which not to exceed $16,800 shall be available for—

and then your new language comes in —

including printing of the report of the historical association.

What is the object of removing the limitation of $150,000 in printing and binding?

Dr. Keddy. This follows the standard practice of removing unnecessary or meaningless limitations from appropriations.

Mr. Thomas. Well, as a matter of fact, you are onlv asking for $103,000, so certainly you don't need a limitation of $150,000.

Dr. Keddy. This committee itself raised the limitation to $15(1,000 but we never got the money. That is why it is of no force or effect.

Dr. Wetmore. These bracketed items were put in by the Bureau of the Budget and with our approval because they served no useful purpose.

Mr. Thomas. It makes sense. What is the purpose of the next one "and not exceeding $5,500 for the preparation of manuscripts" and so forth?

Dr. Wetmore. That item was put in the appropriation act some 40 or 50 years ago and now means absolutely nothing.

Mr. Thomas. Well, now gentlemen, you certainly have a great museum, and you have to have some funds for your anthropological work, research among the American Indians, and so forth, then I notice that you do not have any more money for 1950 than you did for 1949 for the museum; is that correct?

Dr. Wetmore. That is right.

WORK OF BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY

Mr. Thomas. What about your Bureau of Ethnology?

Dr. Keddy. No change in that.

Mr. Thomas. Where does that come in, in your language?

Dr. Wetmore. Under the statement 'Tor anthropological researches among the American Indians."

Mr. Thomas. Don't you want to extend that to a much broader field? You have been researching these poor Indians to death year after year, and, as you said awhile ago, you are going to research them for just as long as you have money for another hundred years. Why do you not broaden the field? There is no need for working these poor Indians overtime, is there?

Dr. Wetmore. There is a tremendous amount of work still to be done in this field.

Mr. Graf. The investigations in archeology have taught us a lot about how these people lived who were in this hemisphere for thousands of years before we came.

Mr. Thomas. Yes, but, gentlemen, you have been doing this work now for about 60 years. When was it that you first started research on these Indians?

Dr. Keddy. We have a staff of only 13 persons engaged in this work.

Mr. Thomas. The question is, when did you start this research? Was it not in 1927?

Dr. Wetmore. It began with the initiation of the Smithsonian Institution, and it is work that can yield very interesting information for the next 200 years.

APPROPRIATION AND ESTIMATE

Mr. Thomas. I notice chat in 1949 you had $2,090,000 and for 1950 you want $2,300,000; is that correct?

Dr. Keddy. That is right. However, the 1949 appropriation of $2,090,000 does not include $170,000 which is to be submitted as a supplement estimate to meet the costs of the Increased Pay Act, Public Law 900, while the $2,300,000 for 1950 does include the increased pay act costs.

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN 1949 AND 1950

Mr. Thomas. How many employees did you have in 1949 and how many do you want for 1950?

Dr. Keddy. Five hundred and thirty-two in 1949 and because we have failed to get the Ramspeck promotion money and our terminal leave money for 1950, we are going to have to reduce from 532 people to about 520; a reduction of 12 people.

Mr. Thomas. Is that in the field and in Washington, too?

Dr. Keddy. That is the total, yes.

Mr. Thomas. I added it up and I must be in error. I find it to be 566 that you are requesting for 1950—542 in the department, and in the field 24.

Dr. Keddy. There are 582 people all told.

Mr. Thomas. I am not asking how many you have on the rolls now. I am asking you how many you want for 1950. How many people do you have on the rolls as of, say, January 1?

Dr. Keddy. On January 22, last Saturday, the end of the pay period, 536 people all told.

Mr. Thomas. 536 all told?

Dr. Keddy. Yes, sir.

Mr. Thomas. And you are requesting, all told, for 1940, 566; is that correct?

Dr. Keddy. No, sir; 520. We are talking net positions now. The figures that you have are what is designated as permanent total.

Mr. Thomas. Well, gentlemen, the only thing the committee wants ■

Dr. Keddy. What you have to do is to take your lapses out. We have money for only 520 jobs in 1950, and to reach this number under the funds estimated we are going to have to cut 12 people off the rolls.

Mr. Thomas. If you will pardon me, your budget is supposed to be prepared not in man-years but in jobs, and I believe you stated that you had on the rolls now 536.

Dr. Keddy. Yes; but

Mr. Thomas. And you are requesting, for the fiscal year 1950, 566 jobs; is that correct?

Dr. Keddy. That is gross, after you take out lapses, which are people, it is reduced from 566 to 532. This is in the record there.

Mr. Thomas. Then, the figures are wrong. If I add them correctly, they add up to 566.

Dr. Keddy. Yes; but the lapses are deductions from this figure. You have to come down to a net and actually the net is the only cash money available with which to hire people.

Mr. Thomas. Your own budget figiu-es show 566, and set out the salaries for each classification.

Dr. Keddy. Yes.

Mr. Thomas. Do you agree to that, Doctor? That for 1950 you want 566 positions, whereas you now have 536?

Dr. Wetmore. Our own figures, sir, show that we expect to have 520 positions filled. As I read the figures on this sheet, they show a total number of jobs estimated for 1950, total permanent departmental of 532. Then, from this gross there are 33 deductions

Mr. Thomas. Now, add to that the field and you will get 566.

Mr. Graf. But the idea, Mr. Chairman, is that we do not have the $1,752,757 shown to pay for total permanent departmental. We only have $1,689,687. We must deduct those lapses of $99,784 to arrive at a net figure. You see the total appropriation is based on the net as to personal services, and that net is found after we have deducted from gross 33 lapses in Washington, and 1 in the field, a total deduction of around $100,000.

Mr. Thomas. Do you mean by that that you. absorb, for the fiscal year 1949, the recent pay increase?

Mr. Graf. No, sir; we could not possibly do it. If we did, we would be closing shop very soon.

Mr. Thomas. Are vou asking for a deficiency for 1949 to cover that?

Dr. Keddy. Yes.

Dr. Wetmore. Certainly. That is absolutely essential for us.

Mr. Thomas. Then, this budget is based upon the inclusion of the $330 pay increase for each and every one of your employees?

Dr. Wetmore. Yes, sir.

Dr. Keddy. There is the line in there, cost of Public Law 900.

Mr. Thomas. I cannot figure it out any other way than that there are funds in here for 566 jobs. If that is not true, they should take the bill back and rewrite it.

Dr. Keddy. There is a deduction line there, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Thomas. What do you mean by that?

Dr. Wetmore. I think I see the explanation now. In the middle of the sheet there is shown a net permanent departmental of 509. Then, further down, net permanent field, 23. That gives a total of 532.

Mr. Thomas. Well, is it 532, then, that you want for 1950?

Dr. Wetmore. That is what is shown there. But actually, in oper-tion, we estimate that we will have to reduce that by 12 employees in order to get by on the funds approved for our use.

Mr. Thomas. How many do you have on the rolls now?

Dr. Keddy. On the 22d of January we had 536.

Mr. Thomas. And you think you will have to go down to 524 then?

Dr. Keddy. Actually, we are going to have to get down to 520.

Dr. Wei more. That is on the funds as estimated here. If those funds are further reduced for any reason, then, our personnel would have to be still further reduced.

PARK RIDGE AIRPORT FACILITY

Mr. Thomas. A while ago you said something about an increase in your rent and utilities services from $93,250 to $117,140 for 1950. Why the increase?

Dr. Wetmore. Mr. Mitman, will you explain that, please?

Mr. Mitman. The Park Ridge facility is operated by the air defense command of the Air Force. When we made our estimates, there had been no experience in the Air Force as to the cost of maintenance and operation

Mr. Thomas. Where is that Air Force now?

Mr. Mitman. Park Ridge Airport in Illinois. It was a plant built by the Government during the war for the construction of DC-3 bombers.

After the war it was taken over by the air defense command of the Air Force, to be used as a storage facility for Federal agencies, together with a facility for the air arm of the Illinois National Guard.

At the time when we made our estimates, the air defense command had no knowledge as to just what the rental cost per square foot would be.

Mr. Thomas. Where do you come in the picture?

85904—49—pt. 1 4

Mr. Mitman. The reason we are in the picture is because during the war the Air Force accumulated airplanes and other historical aviation materials for the National Air Museum, under the orders of General Arnold. There are at Park Ridge nearly 100 aircraft, both American airplanes and trophy airplanes, Japanese, German, and Italian. They were stored there, until after the war. When the National Air Museum was organized and established under Public Law 722, Seventy-ninth Congress, these airplanes were turned over to the Smithsonian, and this was considered the best place to store them, until such time as a museum building is available in Washington.

Mr. Thomas. How much rent are you paying?

Mr. Mitman. That is the problem. Our rent is on the basis of maintenance and operation of the entire facility. We are charged a pro rata share of the total cost monthly.

Mr. Thomas. Hou much money is it costing vou?

Mr. Mitman. Around $95,000."

Dr. Keddy. For .310,000 square feet of space.

Mr. Thomas. $95,000 a year rent for that 9

Mr. Mitman. For our share of it.

Mr. Thomas. How many planes do you have housed out there?

Mr. Mitman. Over a hundred.

Dr. Keedy. The storage charge is at the rate of 30.8 cents a square foot.

Mr. Thomas. How long have you owned those planes?

Dr. Wetmore. This material, as Mr. Mitman said a moment ago, was assembled by the Air Force, under instructions of General Arnold, as the nucleus for the National Air Museum.

additional funds for national air museum

Mr. Thomas. Well, has the National Air Museum been given any funds with which to operate?

Dr. Wetmore. Yes, sir.

Mr. Thomas. Where is it located now'.'

Dr. Wetmore. The main expense at the present time is this storage facility at Park Ridge.

Mr. Thomas. Now, this $218,000 for the National Air Museum, does it include this $95,000 for rent?

Dr. Wetmore. It includes everything for the Air Museum.

Mr. Thomas. What are you going to do with the other $123,000?

Dr. Wetmore. We have a staff of 22 people occupied in this activity. There are 14 at Park Ridge.

Mr. Thomas. Doing what'.'

Dr. Wetmore. Since our space is part of a large open area we must have guards. There is one technical man in charge, one assistant, and two laborers. The technical group must preserve this material and get it in proper shape so that whenever the facilities are available elsewhere, the planes, the engines, and the other things of air interest will be in proper shape to be installed for public exhibition. The main part of the staff there is the guard force.

Mr. Thomas. Cannot the general guard force of that installation take care of if?

Dr. Wetmore. No, sir; we have to maintain our own guard force. We have ten guards in that service. That includes 24-hour guard service, and the necessary relief for annual leave.

Mr. Thomas. Well, now, the whole compound is behind a fence there, is it not?

Dr. Keddy. There are separate agencies in there, and each has its own guard system.

Mr. Thomas. Who is the commanding officer of that installation?

Mr. Mitman. Colonel Strahm.

Mr. Thomas. It is under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces, is it?

Mr. Mitman. Yes, sir. It is the Air Defense Command of the Army Air Force.

Mr. Thomas. And the National Guard of the State there is using a part of the activities?

Mr. Mitman. Yes, sir; they are using 33,750 square feet. The United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Public Debt, has 57,500.

Mr. Thomas. Gentlemen, it looks to me as though you are throwing away a lot of money, spending $218,000 on a group of beat-up planes, locked up in a warehouse, where no one in the world can get to them on account of guards.

Mr. Graf. Just remember, Mr. Chairman, that that $218,000 includes as well the exhibition and care of our aeronautical collections here.

Mr. Thomas. How much are you spending specifically on those planes locked up out there? You have 10 guards and you are paying-SOS,000 a year rent. How much are you paying the guards?

Dr. Keddy. The field service salaries in Chicago total $30,679.

Mr. Thomas. It costs you around $125,600 for that, then.

Dr. Keddy. To maintain that material in shape until we get our National Air Museum where it can be shown to the public. If we do not preserve it, it will be lost.

Mr. Thomas. You have thousands upon thousands of people here who come in and visit, and you are keeping them out there.

Dr. Keddy. We do not have the space to keep these planes here.

Dr. Wetmore. These materials were gathered over a period of years by the Army Air Forces and were maintained by them for a perfod. They told us when we were preparing our estimates for 1949, that we would have to take over. That is why we began to assume this rental charge.

MAINTENANCE AND OPERATION OF BUILDINGS

Mr. Thomas. Your big item here is maintenance and operation of your Washington Museum—$638,557 last year against $654,577. That is where your real good money is spent. How many people do you have in and out of your place, say, in the first 6 months of this year?

Dr. Wetmore. Roughly, 1,300,000.

Mr. Thomas. What part of this fund goes for salaries and what part of it goes for supplies and materials and alterations and repairs and so forth?

Dr. Keddy. I can give you that, Mr. Chairman. For 1950, salaries, $594,007. That is personal services.

For running the telephone system, $5,550.

For electricity and gas, $21,660.

For other contractual services—they include inspection services of elevators, fire-alarm systems, and so forth, $2,360.

Supplies and materials, $24,000.

Equipment, $7,000.

Total other obligations, $60,570.

Which, added to $594,007 for personal services, makes a grand total of $654,577.

Mr. Thomas. Why the increase this year over last year? Is it due to increases in cost of materials and so forth?

Dr. Keddy. Well, first of all, on personal services. We put all our lapses there because this group alone will take all the Ramspeck money that the Budget Bureau gave us.

The increase in other obligations is due to the increase in electricity.

Mr. Thomas. Are you maintaining your buildings very well?

Dr. Keddy. No, sir; that is one of our biggest gripes.

Dr. Wetmore. We are doing the best we can which is not too well. Mr. Oliver, the superintendent, can tell you more about that.

Mr. Oliver. Our buildings, of course, are old and they range anywhere from 101 years old down to roughly 31 or 32 years in age.

Mr. Thomas. A tremendous amount of people come in and out every year. I imagine your maintenance load is heavy. I was just wondering if you were really getting enough money to do that job the way it should be done.

Mr. Oliver. No; sir, we do not. Here is an example: I have a chart showing the amount of money that w T e have been able to allocate to building repairs alone for the last 4 years. In 1946, it was $30,181. In 1947, $31,914. In 1948, $51,556. And we estimate for 1949 that it w T ill be $60,962. Which is very, very small in comparison to the repairs that the buildings actually require.

Dr. Wetmore. And to the increased costs and the alarmingly low r level of inventories of supplies and materials mentioned earlier.

PRINTING AND BINDING

Mr. Thomas. Now r , your printing and binding item is $103,000 for this year. What are some of your publications?

Mr. True. There are five people in this Division. We print the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution, the appendix of which contains articles reviewing the progress and current developments in all branches of science for each year.

Mr. Thomas. All branches of science?

Mr. True. Yes, sir; but obviously w r e cannot treat all of them in each year.

Mr. Thomas. Including medicine and surgery?

Mr. True. Yes, sir, but not in every volume.

Mr. Thomas. What does it cost you per volume each year?

Mr. True. The last one cost $14,000.

Mr. Thomas. How many copies?

Mr. True. Ten thousand copies.

Mr. Thomas. At a cost of $14,000?

Mr. True. Yes, sir.

Mr. Thomas. Is that $1.40 a copy?

Mr. True. Yes, sir; and the Superintendent of Documents sells them for $2.

Mr. Thomas. What else do you print?

Mr. True. We also print for the National Museum a bulletin series, which are large monographs on scientific researches in the various fields of science, and smaller proceedings papers, which cover current research work in the various fields of science in which we are working.

Mr. Thomas. Does that include medicine and surgery, too, and cancer?

Mr. True. No, sir; not directly.

Mr. Thomas. Atomic energy?

Mr. True. No, sir; these researches are mainly in natural history, biology, anthropology, and geology

Mr. Thomas. You folks do not really consider you are doing a hang-up job of research in biology, do you?

Dr. Wetmore. Yes; in our field.

Mr. Thomas. What do you mean in your field? What room do you have for that field, anyway? Why are you in biology?

Dr. Wetmore. Our researches in biology are principally in what is known as the systematic field. That relates to the classification of the many kinds of animals and plants. Before any researcher in applied science in any field where animals or plants are used can be certain of the results of his studies he must know the specific animal or plant that is being used in his investigations.

Mr. Thomas. How many people do you have working in biology?

Dr. Keddy. I would have to get that figure.

Mr. Thomas. Well, what is the approximate figure? See if you can find it.

Dr. Keddy. Sixty-seven employees.

Dr. Wetmore. Let me make this further statement. Investigators must know the names of the kinds of tilings with which they are dealing before they can work successfully. Our function in biology is to furnish that information. We carry on researches and studies in classification for all the different kinds of animals, publish reports on them, describe the new kinds, how they resemble or differ from those known. With our large collections we are in a better position to do this work than is any other agency.

Mr. Thomas. Every large university in the country has a big laboratory working in biology.

Dr. Wetmore. And they all come to us for assistance.

Mr. Thomas. You mean you are the best? Then, they ought to abolish their departments.

Dr. Wetmore. They come to us for help, sir, and come here to work on our collections and ask for the advice of our specialists. The subject is large and complex. There is need for more investigators than are now engaged on this important study.

Mr. Thomas. You folks have specialists? You all make a lot of discoveries in genetics, I guess.

Dr. Wetmore. No, we do not work in genetics.

Dr. Kellogg. You asked what we do. In the Southwest Pacific, military operations were reported to have been delayed materially because information was not available on mites, mosquitoes, and insects capable of transmitting human diseases. They had to come to the Museum for this information. The National Museum acts as a sort of bureau of standards on all these different kinds of animals,

to advise the Federal agencies, the military services, and everybody else, on the different kinds of animals and where they occur.

Mr. Thomas. When our folks got there did you have the answer as to how to kill them?

Dr. Kellogg. That is the responsibility of other agencies.

Mr. Thomas. In other words, you have a very limited field.

Mr. Graf. We furnish the identification and the proper names for these various animals and plants. Mr. Chairman, and from our records we also have much information on where these various forms occur.

Mr. Thomas. You have already identified them and given them a name. Are you going to have to keep on naming them for the next 50 years?

Dr. Wetmore. Mr. Chairman, in my own special field, I cou'd work 100 years on what I see ahead of me now.

Mr. Thomas. Mr. Gore points out that you have a very fine chapter here on atomic energy.

Mr. True. I said that the appendix to the annual report covers practically every branch of science.

Mr. Graf. That work was done by one not on our staff; we ourselves do not work in that field.

Dr. Keddy. The Smithsonian Annual Report is the yearbook of science, you might say.

Mr. Thomas. What in the world are you spending taxpayers' money, even if it is just one page on atomic energy, when you nothing about it, when the top men of the country are over here spending a billion dollars a year on it and here you are, another agency of Government, writing on atomic energy. Atomic-energy men spend a sack full of mone}^ in their own field. Then you come along with a little dog's tail and have to put in your 2 cents worth, and put out your chapter on it.

Mr. Graf. That article was not prepared by our staff.

Mr. Thomas. It is your book, is it not?

Mr. Graf. Yes.

Mr. Thomas. Who printed it?

Mr. Graf. We accept it as an authoritative statement from an accepted authority on the subject.

Dr. Wetmore. We print that for the benefit of your constituents and all others in this country. You would be surprised how many requests come to us from Congress for it.

TRUST FUND

Air. Thomas. What about this trust fund, Doctor, will you explain this rather quickly? Under sections 5590-5591 of the Revised Statutes—

A sum equal to interest at the rate of 6 percent per annum on a trust fund of $1,000,000 derived from the original bequest of Mr. Smithson and other deposits in the Treasury on the same terms. Money so appropriated paid semiannually to the Board of Regents, for the maintenance and support of the Smithsonian Institution. Appropriated in 1949, $60,000; 1950, $60,000.

Dr. Wetmore. By instruction of Congress, the original Smithson fund was placed in the Treasury Department, together with other moneys, amounting to a million dollars.

Mr. Thomas. We understand that. I was just trying to get it in the record. You have a trust fund of a million dollars. Xow, does this $60,000 show up in your budget?

Dr. Wetmore. No, sir.

Mr. Thomas. That is over and above your budget?

Dr. Wetmore. This goes for the operation of the parent organization, the Smithsonian Institution proper. The appropriation included in our budget covers the Federal bureaus that have been entrusted to the Smithsonian for operation and administration.

This, in one sense, is a part of the overhead, the administrative charge.

Mr. Thomas. So, in effect, we can add $38,500 to your appropriation. This is drawing 6 percent interest and the Government can borrow practically all the money it wants to at 2.2 percent interest, so the $38,500 amounts to an additional appropriation.

Dr. Wetmore. We do not so regard it. The treatment accorded this first benefaction to our Government has resulted in many other gifts from public-spirited Americans.

Mr. Thomas. Are there any questions?

Thank you, gentlemen. You certainly do a magnificent job in Washington, and if you were to concentrate on that, I think jon would do a very fine job.

break-down of personnel by divisions

One thing further, Dr. Wetmore, will you prepare a table for insertion in the record at this point, for 1944 through 1949, by your activities, and I will list them for you.

For each one of those years, 11 columns, general administration, National Museum, Bureau of American Ethnology, Astrophysical Observatory, national collection of fine arts. National Air Museum, Canal Zone biological area, International Exchange Service, maintenance and operation, service divisions, and leave out pay increase, as we can figure that out.

In that table, show, by divisions, or activities, for the years 1944 through 1949, the dollars spent in each one of the activities per year and the number of employees per year.

Is that clear to you?

Dr. Wetmore. Yes, sir.

(The information is as follows:)

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INDEPENDENT OFFICES APPROPRIATION BILL, 195 0

Cooperation of Russia in Exchange of Documents, Etc.

(Is Russia cooperating in the exchange of documents and similar information?)

(The information is as follows:)

It should be stated that Russia is not signatory to the Treaty of Brussels under which our Exchange Service functions, and thus Russian publications are not sent to this country through the Exchange Service. The Smithsonian Library receives Russian publications direct from abroad, and we know from inquiry that various other institutions do the same. The Library of Congress has informed the International Exchange Service that their exchanges with the All Union Lenin Library are very productive. According to a recent survey it appears that a major proportion of important Russian publications are being received in this country.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

STATEMENT OF HARRY A. McBRIDE, ADMINISTRATOR AND BUDGET OFFICER, ACCOMPANIED BY GEORGE T. HECKERT, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR

Salaries and Expenses

standard classification schedule

Salaries and expenses, National Gallery of Art

Estimate, 1949

Estimate, 1950

Increase (+)

or decrease (—)

STANDARD CLASSIFICATION

01 Personal services ,

02 Travel

03 Transportation of things -

04 Communication services

05 Rents and utility services

06 Printing and binding

07 Other contractual services

08 Supplies and materials

09 Equipment

10 Lands and structures

Grand total obligations

Totarappropriation or estimate

$947, 700

1,600

500

5,740

52,050

7,000

23, 590

24,020

5,000

1,700

1,068, 900

$954, 200

1,600

500

5,740

65, 900

7,000

24, 350

25, 370 3,040

1,087, 700 1,087, 700

+$6, 500

+13, 850

+760 +1,350 -1,960 -1, 700

+18,800 +18,800

Mr. Thomas. We will take up next the National Gallery of Art. Mr. McBricle, we are delighted to have you with us this afternoon, to justify the salaries and expenses of the National Gallery of Art, and we welcome you and your staff.

Mr. McBride. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Thomas. I presume you have a general statement you would like* to give us, and, if so, we will listen with great interest and will not interrupt you while you are making it.

Mr. McBride. It is verv brief.

acquisitions

I would like to report that we have had another successful year at the Gallery. We have received over a thousand new acquisitions in gifts and loans. Among the most important were 113 fine American portraits which were given to us by the A. W. Mellon Educational