urn?'"- ' ~? ?" -vnMrf INDEPENDENT OFFICES APPROPRIATION BILL, 1929 ? HEARINGBEFORESUBCOMMITTEE OF HOUSE COMMITTEEON APPROPRIATIONSCONSISTING OPMessrs. WILLIAM R. WOOD (Chairman)EDWARD H. WASON, JOHN W. SUMMERS, THOMAS H.CULLEN, and FRED M. VINSONIN CHARGE OFINDEPENDENT OFFICES APPROPRIATION BILL, 1929 ?*???J. E.G.FEB 24 1941 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 325Colonel Grant. Yes; I am sure of it.Mr. Wood. What articles do you need to have printed mostly?Colonel Grant. Mostly blank forms. Tbe item might seem large,except that we have to have record cards in order to keep track ofthe operation of the various machines and boilers, and so on, dairycharts sbowing a continuous record of what is going on, what theiroutput is, and so on. Those charts cost quite a little. The annualreport costs only about $210. That is the only text printing that wehave. The rest of it is for forms and charts. Tuesday, December 20, 1927.SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONSTATEMENTS OF DR. C. G. ABBOT, ACTING SECRETARY; DR. ALEX-ANDER WETMORE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY; DR. W. de C.RAVENEL, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT; L. C. GTJNNELL,ASSISTANT IN CHARGE OF INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE, SCI-ENTIFIC LIBRARY; H. W. DORSEY, CHIEF CLERK; AND HON.R. WALTON MOORE AND HON. WALTER H. NEWTON, MEMBERSOF THE BOARD OF REGENTSMr. Wood. Have you a general statement you desire to make beforewe take up the specific items in the bill ?Doctor Abbot. There are at present two members of our Board ofRegents, sir, and it occurs to me, as they may very likely haveengagements in the House, it would be better for them to say whatis in their minds first. Mr. Newton and Mr. Moore are here.Mr. Newton. Mr. Chairman, I would be very glad to remainaround here for a few minutes, until after Doctor Abbot has pre-sented the matters generally. The interest here of Mr. Moore and?myself is as members of the Board of Regents from the House. Mr.Johnson, also a Regent, is sick, or he would be here with us.There are two items wherein the Budget has not granted therequest, and we are here primarily on those two items in the interestof seeing that the facts are brought out before this committee, and itis our hope, after that matter has been gone into, our request willbe granted. I would be very glad to wait until Doctor Abbot getsthrough.Mr. Wood. You folks do not ever seem to be satisfied with what theBudget does for you?Mr. Newton. Well, I am afraid that is true, in part, but we wouldbe derelict in our duties as Regents, sometimes, if we were satisfied,and. as a result of our own efforts and the efforts of this committee,in the past, I think we have been able to do much more than we wouldhave had we followed the recommendations of the Director of theBudget.Mr. Wood. Well, just so somebody commences here. Don't letyour modesty deter all of you.Mr. Mooke. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Newton and I think perhaps itwould be well for us to submit a memorandum which we have hadprepared with reference, I think, to all of the item- that will beunder consideration. ... 326 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1029Mr. Wood. I will read this : SALARIES AND SUPPLIES 1. Certain salaries and supplies, heretofore carried by Smithsonian privateincome, $25,000. (This item was allowed by the Budget and is in the regularestimates before the committee.)The Smithsonian is privately endowed. Yet from the highest officials ofthe Smithsonian down to laborers, all now paid from the private income, noinconsiderable service is devoted to administration (and to actual labor) forthe seven Government bureaus under Smithsonian management. It is notpracticable, indeed it is inexpedient, for the Government to take over pro-portional parts of the salaries of the secretary, the editor, and others in away to equitably share this charge. But it has been urged by the Regents andby the acting secretary, and accepted as a working arrangement by theBureau of the Budget, that Congress should appropriate to the extent of$25,000 to cover in full the compensations of certain clerks and laborers, andthe costs of certain supplies, in lieu of the exact ascertainment of actual tiiu<-*eer bequest : Court and grounds fund 1 $365,441.13Court and grounds, maintenance fund 1 78. 953. 36Curator fund ' 316, 830. 25Residuary legacy J 3. 410. 6-",. 87Total Freer funds 4.171,880.61RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF ENDOWMENTSMr. AYood (continuing). Is there any specific purpose to whichthe proceeds of any of these endowments are to be applied?Doctor Abbott. Yes : in many cases there are specific purposes.Mr. Dorsey. In some cases, Mr. Chairman, the testators have left acertain bequest with the stipulation it should not be touched, but 1 Income restricted to specific uses, not available for general purposes. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 329that the interest should be added to the principal until it equaled theprincipal, or until a certain sum was reached. 'That was the caseof the bequest of Mr. Poore of Massachusetts, some years ago. Heleft us some real estate up in Lowell and other funds, and stipulatedthat they should not be touched until $250,000 was reached, andthen it can be used for the general purposes of the institution.Mr. "Wood. That is, the principal can be used ?Mr. Dorsey. The interest only can be used. I do not think wehave a case, sir, where the principal can be used. Often we are givensmall gifts for a specific purpose, like a small expedition or some-thing like that ; but in many cases funds are restricted to a specificpurpose, or may not be used at the present time, on account of thecondition that the income shall be added to the principal until acertain sum is reached.HISTORY OF SMITHSON ENDOWMENTMr. Wood. 'As a matter of fact, you have none of the principal ofthe Smithson endowment, have you?Mr. Dorsey. Yes, sir ; I think we have.Doctor Abbot. We have, Mr. Chairman. The Government of theUnited States invested the actual money which came from theSmithson estate in several different ways, some of which invest-ments proved to be poor ones, and under a feeling of the Congressthat the United States was a trustee in this matter and it was avery sacred trust, and especially by the urging of ex-President JohnQuincy Adams, who at that time was a Member of the House, Con-gress passed an act in 1846 in which it was provided that the equiva-lent of the original bequest of Smithson should be deposited in theUnited States Treasury, or should be regarded as deposited in theUnited States Treasury, and bear interest forever at 6 per cent, tobe used for the purposes of the Smithson bequest. Later on, about20 year later, in 1867, was it not ?Mr. Dorsey. Yes, sir.Doctor Abbot. It was made possible to deposit up to $1,000,000of any additional sums which might come into the hands of theBoard of Regents, to bear interest at 6 per cent forever, in favor ofthe purposes of the Institution. That is the law now under whichwe are proceeding.Mr. Wood. Then there is not any sum of money that is invested bythe Treasury, independent of these other investments, the sole andspecific purpose of which is to make this return of $60,000 a yearfor the Smithsonian, is there? In this letter you are submittingyou are given what is the equivalent of 6 per cent on a milliondollars. That is paid out of the General Treasury?Doctor Abbot. Mr. Chairman, the original bequest of Smithsonamounted approximately to $600,000. That sum was regarded asheld in trust and regarded as deposited in the Treasury. The bal-ance of approximately half a million dollars lias actually beendeposited by the Regents in specific sum- as they have been receivedfrom this, that, and the other source: so that with the actual moneysdeposited by the Institution in accordance with lawMr. Wood. I understand that; but the point I am trying to makeis that the Government does not actually have that money and makeinvestments the proceeds of which are turned over to you? 330 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929Doctor Abbot. No.Mr. Wood. Theyjust give you the equivalent of what is 6 per ceirion a million dollars?Doctor Abbot. Yes.Mr. Dorsey. The Government has use of the money, though.Mr. Wood. Of course, it is just the same thing.ADMINISTRATION EXPENSES TO BE PAID FROM FUNDS OTHER THAN INCOMEON ENDOWMENT FUNDMr. Moore. This proposal you have before you right now meansit carries the release of $25*000 of this income from the endowmentfor the general purposes of the Institution?research and investi-gation.Doctor Abbot. That is true, Mr. Chairman.Mr. Moore. I will say to the subcommittee that Mr. DwightMorrow, who is one of the ablest men I have ever encountered, afterhe came on the board was very much impressed with the fact thatthis should be done: that is, that $25,000 should be freed so as tobe able to use it in scientific research, etc. and I think he and Mr.Delano called on the Director of the Budget and discussed thematter with him and. as a result, the Budget approved this proposal.Mr. Wood. Is it proposed to make this $25,000 a permanentarrangement? Is it only for this year, or is it intended this same -urn of money, or more or less, should be appropriated from year toyear, or that the same purposes for which this is asked would beurged on us from time to time?Mr. Moore. I think that would be answered in the affirmative.EXPENDITURES FROM PROCEEDS OF SMITHSON FUNDMr. Wood. For what purposes have the funds you have derivedfrom the Smithson endowment been expended, Doctor Abbot?Doctor Abbot. In the past, sir, beginning as long ago as 1850, theybegan to make collections and defray the expenses of expeditions, outof which grew up the great National Museum. Later on. about thatsame time. Secretary Henry, realizing the advantage of the freecommunication of ideas between this country and abroad, estab-lished a system of exchanges of the Smithsonian publications witha great many countries in foreign lands. This proved to be so valu-able, not only to the Smithsonian but to the other institutions andlearned societies of this country, that it was eagerly availed of byothers and the National Government soon began to make use of it.So that between 1870 and 1880 there was no small amount of theSmithsonian's private income which was devoted to carrying, for theGovernment, publications abroad. Then, about 1880, the Govern-ment, realizing that it was using the income of the Smithson bequestfor purposes which were of a public utility character, began toappropriate money for the international exchanges, and one of theitems which we will come to later is for the international exchangesthat grew up out of the use of the income. Then we have greatpublications, classical publications.If yon should happen to be, sir, in the west hall of the Smith-sonian Institution, you will see there a column 23 feet high, made up APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 331 of a cross section of four books, in which are collected the publica-tions of the Smithsonian Institution on all possible subjects whichthe mind of man has conceived from the beginning until now andthese have been sent free to all parts of the world. It has been said,sir, that there is no encyclopedia or text book of knowledge whichhas been published in the last 50 years which does not owe the funda-mental facts, in large measure, to these publications which have beenmade with the private income of the Smithsonian Institution.Mr. Wood. Is that column you have built up there, built out ofextra copies?Doctor Abbot. We have quite a beautiful set of the complete pub-lications of the institution.Doctor Wetmore. The column is made with one copy of each book,sir; no more.Mr. Wood. Do you keep a separate and distinct record of thepurposes for which the proceeds of the Smithson fund are expended ?Doctor Abbot. Yes.Mr. Wood. So that you know all the time what is the conditionof that account ?Doctor Abbot. Yes, sir.Mr. Wood. Do you do that same thing with reference to all theseother funds?Doctor Abbot. Yes, sir.Mr. Wood. For how long have you been doing that?Doctor Abbot. Ever since the beginning. In fact, sir, it was partof the fundamental act that the Smithsonian Institution Regentsshall report to Congress every year all such accounts.Mr. Wood. Do you file in your report the different items of expen-diture that have been made out of these funds for that year ?Doctor Abbot. To a considerable extent, sir. Of course, if weshould include every single item, like the purchase of a block ofpaper or the like, it would probably be too voluminous.Mr. Wood. It might be interesting for the public and Congressespecially if they knew or had some idea; but, if that is reported,why it is all right.Mr. Dorset. You asked one question awhile ago about whetherthe Smithson money was actually deposited in the Treasury; that is,whether the Government actually holds the Smithson fund?Mr. Wood. Yes.INVESTMENT OF SMITHSON FUND IN ARKANSAS STATE BONDSMr. Dorset. That money, as you recall, was largely invested inArkansas bonds and, for a long time, these were repudiated by theState and there was no settlement. Then. I think, in 1898, theState of Arkansas made a settlement with the Government coveringState bonds, public lands within the State etc., etc. and the Smith-sonian money was taken into account in that settlement. So the Gov-ernment actually has \\w use of the Smithson fund, as it was takeninto that account and there has been a settlement made.Mr. Wood. Do you know, in that settlement made by Arkansas ofthe debt she once repudiated, whether or not the Smithson fund wasentirely replenished up to the amount of their loan? 332 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929Mr. Dorset. The General Government made a settlement with theState that was satisfactory to the Government.Mr. Wood. Was it a full settlement, or thereabouts 2 Mr. Dorset. I do not know, sir: but the bonds purchased with theSmithson money was one of the items covered by the settlementsPUBLICATION OF " WORLD WEATHER RECORDS''Doctor Abbot. Yon asked a few moments ago with reference tothat book which Mr. Xewton now has in his hand.Mr. Wood. Yes.Doctor Abbot. It would be interesting, sir. if I read this letterfrom the Chief of the United States Weather Bureau:Dear Doctor Albot: The Weather Bureau notes with great interest thepublication of the extremely valuable collection of meteorological data emit led '? World Weather Records." which will henceforth be an indispensable referencebook in meteorological libraries.The Institution has been good enough to present copies of this work to theWeather Bureau library, as well as to myself and some of the oilier officials ofthe bureau, for which please accept our thanks. We shall require about 50additional copies for use at Weather Bureau stations, and I am writing toinquire wether, in view of the large number desired, these could be purchasedat a special rate from the Smithsonian Institution.Faithfully yours. C. V. Marvin, Chief of Uiirciiu.I will also say. sir. that several workers in meteorology have shownso great an interest and attributed so great a value to this publicationthat, in several instances, they have reported that they have alreadyworn the book out, and desire another one to replace it.Mr. Wood. You sell that book, do you (Doctor Abbot. Yes. sir; we sell that book, for about half of thecost to the Smithsonian Institution to print it. at $3 a volume, so asto increase its usefulness among those to whom its full price would beprohibitive. RECEIPTS FROM SALE OF PUBLICATIONMr. Wood. What becomes of the proceeds?Doctor Abbot. That goes back to the Smithson fund.Mr. Wood. Is that turned into the Treasury like the proceeds de-rived from all these other departments?Doctor Abbot. This was from private funds of the Institution : itwas not published at Government expense, but from private fundsof the Institution and the proceeds are returned to that fund.Mr. Wood. Is that out of the original endowment ?Doctor Abbot. We have, in addition to about $1,000,000 in theTreasury, nearly $400,000 which we have invested in various safesecurities, bonds, and the like, and it is to this general fund of about$1,400,000, that the proceeds of such sales are returned.Mr. Wood. Do you keep an account and make a report of the itemsof expense that are paid for out of these endowments, and then doyou keep a separate account of the things and expenses that are paidfor out of the Government's appropriation?Doctor Abbot. That is the case. sir. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 333Doctor Wetmore. May I distinguish between a publication of thistype and one published from the governmental appropriation forprinting and binding?Mr. Wood. Yes.Doctor Wetmore. The book we now have under discussion is inwhat is known as the Smithsonian miscellaneous collections. Thepapers that appear in that series are printed wholly from income ofthe Smithson endowment. The money appropriated by Congress, forprinting and binding for the bureau under the Smithsonian, hasnothing whatever to do with it.Mr. Wood. The item, then, for printing and binding in this esti-mate does not present a true picture of the expenditures for printingand binding by the Institution, does it?Doctor Wetmore. It does not cover the amount expended by theSmithsonian from its invested funds for printing and binding.Mr. Wood. How much is expended for printing and binding outof that fund, and in addition to what the Government appropriatesfor printing and binding?Mr. Dorset. Recently about $14,000 a year, sir.Doctor Wetmore. The custom is to allot for that purpose as muchas possible (with due regard to other interests) from the incomefrom the invested funds.NECESSITY OF MAKING APPROPRIATION FOR ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSESNow, if this item of $25,000 here is allowed by Congress, that willmean an increase of the publication of manuscripts that come tothe Smithsonian as such, and' not to the governmental bureausunder it.Mr. Wood. This whole $25,000 would not be spent for printingand binding, would it?Doctor Wetmore. No, sir. The primary intention of the incomefrom the Smithson endowment was to encourage original investi-gators in science to make contributions to new fields. As the Smith-sonian has grown, the bureaus that it has instituted, which havebeen taken over by the Government, have shown a very laudablegrowth also which has occasioned an increasingly larger amountannually for administrative overhead. That has now grown to apoint where it is absorbing a large part of the income from theprivate funds of the organization. It is felt, as set forth in the state-ment that Mr. Moore presented, that is now the case to the detrimentof the original purpose of the fund.Mr. Wood. Why?Doctor Wetmore. Because it . does not allow funds for originalinvestigations and scientific research. On an examination of theexpenditures that have been annually under the Smithson fund, itis considered that $25,000 represents an administrative charge thatthe institution is now carrying, due to the governmental bureausunder it whirl) should be treed and to allow it to go back to itsoriginal purpose. 334 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929PAT OF CERTAIN EMPLOYEES NOW PAID FROM SM1TIIS0N FUNDMr. Wood. Yon said something, doctor, about certain bureaus overwhich you exercise certain supervision or control: What are they?Doctor Abbot. The National Museum. National Zoological Park,Bureau of American Ethnology, Astrophysical Observatory, Bureauof International Exchanges, Bureau of International Catalogue ofScientific Literature, and the National Gallery of Art.Mr. Wood. Are those all independent bureaus ; that is to say, theyare not a part or parcel of any other activity ?Doctor Abbot. No, sir. This is the independent offices bill, sir, andthese are, by direction of the Congress, under the administration ofthe Smithsonian Institution.Mr. Wood. Are they run in any way in connection with eachother; that is to say, does the same clerical force do part of the workof this and part of the Avork of that bureau ?Doctor Abbot. To a great extent. The Secretary of the Smith-sonian is a general administrative officer over the an hole group; thechief clerk, who is here, sir, has a great deal to do with adminis-tration over the whole group; the editor of the Smithsonian Institu-tion has quite a good deal to do with the editing of the Governmentpublications; the property clerk has considerable to do with thingswhich relate to the other bureaus. Then, again, the clerk who sendsout the publications has to do with some?the Bureau of Ethnologyand others. And so it is all along the line, that from the force ofthe Smithsonian proper a great deal of time and attention is givento matters which properly relate l^o these seven different bureauswhich I have enumerated.Mr. Wood. How do you pay these different persons who aredevoting their work between these different institutions; how doyou divide the funds with reference to the payment of the salariesof those persons? Do you keep books on that or do you pay themall out of one fund?Doctor Abbot. Well, sir, the payment of the force which is enu-merated under this item of $25,000 is at present all coming fromthe Smithson private fund, and in addition to that the payment ofthe salary of the secretary, payment of the salary of the editor, andseveral other officials comes from the private fund.The payment of the employees connected with the National Mu-seum, the Bureau of American Ethnology, Zoological Park, and thelike comes from the funds which are appropriated yearly by Con-gress. And the items are kept entirely distinct. What is proposednow. sir, is that Congress should take over the payment of a certainlot of people and for certain supplies now carried on the Smithsonianprivate income, amounting in all to $25,000. This, we feel, is a fairestimate of the value of the Smithsonian administration and care forthe Government bureaus I have enumerated and which is now beingpaid from the private funds. This sum will go back into the useof the Smithsonian Institution for its particular researches and de-velopment of new projects, and for its explorations and importantpublications, such as that which I have brought to you. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 335Mr. "Wood. Is that upon the theory this work should be part ofthe Government's work and paid out of the general fund, rather thancharged against these several departments which are endowed?Doctor Abbot. It is on the theory, sir, that such a bureau as theNational Museum, or Zoological Park, is a public necessity, which,if the Smithsonian did not exist, the Government would be at pains tocarry on, perhaps under some of the general departments of theGovernment. If the Smithsonian should be abolished, undoubtedlythat work could go on. Now the Smithsonian itself is a private en-dowment which is charged by Congress with the administration ofthese various things at the present time. We feel, sir, that it is givingof its strength, gained from its income from the private fund, verylargely to this work of carrying for the Government what, if theSmithsonian did not exist, would certainly be directly appropriatedfor by the Congress.Mr. "Wood. These other bureaus you have mentioned : Do youthink they occupy the same relation that the Zoological Park doeswith reference to the duty of a private institution or the Governmentto keep up and as to what it would keep up but for the Smithsonian ?Doctor Abbot. I think so; yes, sir.Mr. "Wood. All right. Now you are proposing to employ 16 per-sons out of this appropriation of $25,000. The aggregate of salarieswill be $20,400. "Will these be extra employees, or old employeeswho are now paid out of this fund?Doctor Abbot. At the present time, all of these employees arebeing paid out of the private funds.Mr. "Wood. It does not mean an increase of 16 persons on yourpay roll ?Doctor Abbot. Not at all. It only means the transfer of those16 persons' compensation from the private funds of our institutionto the congressional appropriation.Mr. W^ood. Are these people now receiving the same salaries thatthey would receive if this appropriation is granted ?Doctor Abbot. Yes, sir ; I believe so.Mr. Dorsey. Unless the Personnel Classification Board shouldreallocate them to higher positions. These are actual salaries beingpaid now, sir, from the Smithsonian funds.Mr. "Wood. There won't be very much left of this $25,000 after thesepersons' salaries are paid.INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGESINCREASE IN OCEAN FREIGHT RATESMr. "Wood. Now the item for international exchanges : International exchanges : For the system of international exchanges hetweenthe United States and foreign countries, under the direction of the SmithsonianInstitution, including necessary employees, and purchase of necessary books andperiodicals, and traveling expenses, $47,855, of which amount not to exceed$25,000 may be expended for personal services in the District of Columbia.The appropriation asked there is $47,855. Is any portion of theexpense of this item of $25,000 to be used for the purpose of cover-ing expenses of this item?81202?28 22 336 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929Doctor Abbot. No ; not at all, sir.Mr. Wood. Now tell us about this international exchange business.Doctor Abbot. The item we are asking for this year is $47,855,which is a little over a thousand dollars more than the last appro-priation. The difference, sir, is on account of the increased cost offreight rates and the larger quantity of matter carried. We havehere a tabulation relating to the freight rates, from which it appearsthat to several of the principal countries there have been, during theyear, quite considerable increases?to France, 12i/2 per cent; to Italy,16% per cent.Mr. Wood. Are these increases?Doctor Abbot. Increase of freight rates over last year.Mr. Dorsey. Ocean freight rates.Doctor Abbot. Ocean rates. To Germany, 33^ per cent; to Ar-gentina, 10 per cent?making a change for the year of about $400to us. Then, there is more business being done and a considerablylarger total weight of material carried, so that we require $1,000more to carry on the business. During the past year, owing to theseincreases, there was a deficit of about $700, which was met by theSmithsonian private funds.Mr. Summers. I understand the freight rate to Germany is 30 percent higher than it was the year before?Doctor Abbot. Yes. sir.Mr. Dorset. Thirty-three per cent.Doctor Abbot. The rate per cubic foot in 1926 was 37^ cents;in 1927, 50 cents?making an increase of 33% per cent.Mr. Wood. How do you ship this stuff, by mail?Doctor Abbot. No, sir; in general by boxing. You see, sir. thematerial is sent from the Government and from the various learnedsocieties and the like in the United States to the Smithsonian Insti-tution. There will be, for instance, a whole box from a certaininstitution, which is to be distributed to all parts of the world. Itis unpacked by the institution and repacked in different boxes, partgoing to Germany, part to England, part to France, and the like.When a proper amount of material has come in for shipmentit is sent to New York, where the coordinator of the Army takescharge of the through shipment of it on the appropriate vessel,and it goes then to our correspondent abroad, where it is againunpacked and consigned to the particular addressees to which theparcels are to go. In the foreign countries they distribute it at theirown expense to the actual consignees. That is the kind of work whichthe International Exchange is doing. It carries for the NationalGovernment the Congressional Record by treaty to a huge numberof the parliamentary institutions in other countries: it carries thePatent Office reports: and. in fact, all the Government publicationswhich are authorized by law to be sent to the different countries. Theagent of Congress in this matter of selection of recipients is the Con-gressional Library. We are instructed by the Congressional Libraryto include as correspondents the governments of such and such andsuch countries, making all together 103 sets at the present time. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 337DEMAND FOR PUBLICATIONS BY PEOPLE ABROADMr. Wood. Do you reckon they pay any more attention to theseover there than we do here ?Doctor Abbot. Yes, sir.Mr. Dorset. Yes, sir; they do. We have letters here from peopleabroad ; if there is any delay, they write and complain of it.Mr. Moore. They actually read the Congressional Record?Mr. Dorset. Mr. Moore, we sent a big consignment of the Congres-sional Record, at the request of a Member of Congress, to the Jewishstation in Palestine, last year, sir. Members of Congress use theexchange service to send the Congressional Record and other docu-ments.Mr. Wood. You do not know what they use them for over there ?Mr. Dorset. I do not; no, sir.Mr. Wood. Is this shipment made across the ocean by the WarDepartment ?Doctor Abbot. That is the forwarding agent only. You see, wesend by freight to New York; then, there has to be some agent thereto transship to the proper steamship lines; and the agent we have beenusing for several years is the Coordinator of the Second Area.Mr. Dorset. They are very efficient and handle the business verywell, too.SHIPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES BY UNITED STATES SHU'SMr. Wood. Do you have anything to do with designating the vesselto ship on?Mr. Dorset. No ; we send them to him and he acts the same as anysteamship broker would do.Mr. Wood. Do you know what ships they us ?Doctor Abbot. Oh, yes; we have a report in every instance.Mr. Wood. Do they ship on a United States vessel ?Mr. Dorset. As far as they can, sir.Mr. Wood. About half of the services here seem to use other boatsto travel on, rather than ours.Mr. Dorset. They do that as far as possible?use the UnitedStates lines.Mr. Wason. Do any large percentage of our shipments go on theUnited States lines?Air. Dorset. I could not tell you that.Mr. Wason. Put it in the record.Mr. Dorset. Yes. Sometimes if waiting for a ship of the UnitedStates lines to a certain country is going to make a big delay, andthey then ship on some other lines.Note.?Statement concerning the forwarding of consignments of internationalexchanges to foreign countries during a 12-month period. United States lines.Other lines iinnt 156300 Boxes 1,5001,572 w eighl PoundtJ'.:. 7 8270, 316 338 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929Shipments are not always made by vessels of the United State-lines (1) when to hold a shipment for a steamer of those lines wouldunduly delay the dispatch of the consignment and (2) because theUnited States lines do not have vessels sailing for all ports to whichconsignments are forwarded.ADVISABILITY OF CONSOLIDATING PAY OF PERSONNELMr. AVood. Have you ever considered. Doctor, the advisability ofhaving all of your personnel in all of these institutions, where youhave separate and individual accounts for personal services, collectedtogether in one item of administration iDoctor Abbot. You mean. sir. the National Museum, ZoologicalPark, and all the different ones should be put in one item \Mr. Wood. Yes. You seem to have a coordinated activity downthere and it does not seem to me there is much logic in keeping themseparate, if they are all being paid out of the same common fund.Doctor Wetmore. This $25,000 is the amount being carried nowby the Smithsonian. These other funds are administered by sepa-rate heads under the Smithsonian, just as the various bureaus underthe Department of Agriculture, for example, have a separate per-sonnel fund that is administered by the chief of the bureau. Wehave seven bureaus in our administration and each bureau has it-own personnel. Then there is the Smithsonian above all of them,which directs the general activities of the bureau heads.Mr. Wood. You only have one paymaster down there, have you '.Doctor Wetmore. One paymaster is all.Mr. Wood. Then, as I understand it, you make no distinction outof which fund you pay for your personnel, do you?Doctor AVetmore. Yes; we do. Each fund has a separate pay roll.It so happens that the total amount is not so large but that it can behandled by one central office ; but each fund has a separate pay roll,and accounting is made meticulously for the different bureaus, underthe funds appropriated for that purpose. In other words, the payroll for the National Museum is a thing absolutely distinct fromthat for the international exchanges or the national Zoological Park.Mr. AA'ood. You could not very well combine them, then 1Doctor AA^etmore. It would be rather difficult to combine all ofthem. It would make a clumsy administrative unit.Mr. AA'ood. If that thing could be done, there are a whole lot of thelimitations put in each of the different items which would be dis-posed of and one limitation made to apply to all of them. I do notknow : perhaps it is not practicable.Mr. Dorset. All those pay rolls for these different bureaus, Mr.Chairman, would have to be certified by different officers.Mr. AA'ood. They are now \Mr. Dorsey. They are now, and if you had them all on one payroll, it would make more trouble than it would save. I think, sir.LETTER IX RE VALUE OF INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGESDoctor Abbot. In connection with the international exchanges,I would like to quote from a letter received recently from Mr. GeorgeS. Godard, Connecticut State librarian. He says: APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 339Every time I make a call at your department I am the more impressed withthe most important service you and those associated with you in the Inter-national Exchange Service are rendering to the several States, institutions, andothers scattered throughout the civilized earth.As a representative of the State of Connecticut in charge of the State, Na-tional, and International Exchanges of Connecticut. I wish to again expressmy thanks for the services you have rendered the good State of Connecticutboth in forwarding to others and sending to us.INCREASE IN PAY OF EMPLOYEESThere is only one further thing I would like to say in connectionwith the exchanges: If the Congress should approve of the recom-mendation which Mr. Moore has had printed in the record, therewould be an additional amount for the International Exchanges of$353.33, covering the increase of compensation of one step up ofpersons whose records are deserving.Mr. Wood. The greater portion of this fund, practically half of it,is for personal services in the District of Columbia.Doctor Abbot. About half, sir; a little less than half is for serv-ices and the remainder for the purchase of boxes, transportation,and the like.Mr. Wood. The material you exchange does not cost you anything %Doctor Abbot. No, sir ; the material costs nothing.Mr. Dorset. If this one step up is allowed, it is $353. It wouldraise the total appropriation to $48,208 and increase the salary limita-tion to $25,353.Mr. Wood. The clerk suggests it might be well if we would haveone limitation for all of these items, so that in the event you are alittle short on one you could draw a little on the other.Mr. Dorsey. We could do that.Doctor Wetmore. That would be very advantageous.Mr. Wood. Some of the other departments do that.Mr. Dorset. That would be all right. If you simply sum up allthe limitations and give it to us in a lump sum, instead of a separatelimitation on each fund, that would be very much better.Doctor Wetmore. We have no field force: our entire staff is herein Washington, so that could be handled very easily.SALARIES OF SMITHSONIAN EMPLOYEES BELOW AVERAGE OF GRADEDoctor Abbot. I would like to say on this subject of a rise of onestep in the salaries of deserving employees, that if you will turn tothe proper page in the Budget you will find that of the 33 serviceslisted on page A110 the Smithsonian is third from last; that is to say.we are the thirty-first in the average compensation, notwithstandingour work is of a very technical and unusually scientific character, asa rule.Even after such an increase of one step, if it should be made, wewould still be among the last in the whole range. We find that is:so not only in regard to the average of all compensations, but youwill find. sir. in the several grades, thai we are below the averageright straight through. You can easily sec (hat such a slate of affair-is discouraging to technical men, especially to (he lies) ones: so thatwe are losing, from time to time, some whom we can ill afford to lose, 340 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929on account of the fact the compensations are so far below the averageof the Government service.Mr. Wood. I see the public buildings and parks is below you, andwhat others?Doctor Abbot. I think there is only one other besides thai ; I cannot now recall which one it is. sir.Mr. Dorset. Public buildings and parks I think is below us becausenearly all of their employees arc laborers and people of 1 1 1 ;i t grade.The District of Columbia. I think, is below us. sir. and they have agreat many laborers there, too.Mr. Wood. Yes; they are $1,539 to your $1,563. Down at theBudget, they do not seem to consider it takes any great amotmt ofability to run your institution: do they?Doctor Abbot. Xo. sir; that seem- to appear, but I imagine if youand the other gentlemen here should come down, and try to carryon some investigations which go on under the Astrophysical Observa-tory, or under the National Museum, you would find it would takesome time to get trained people into it so that they would get inter-national recognition for their publications.Mr. Wood. The fact is the great majority of your employees arelaborers, are they not \Doctor Abbot. Oh, no. sir: I would like Mr. Wetmore to speak' tothat for a moment: because he employs the great majority of them.Doctor Wetmore. We have guards and laborers on our force, thatis true; but. at the same time, we have considerable scientific staff.We have in the National Museum alone 4 head curators, 16 curators,and IT assistant curators. In all, there is a scientific staff there ofapproximately 80 persons. This group is not receiving pay commen-surate with what those in similar work, in other organizations, aregetting.Mr. Wood. What is the average pay of your curators?Doctor Wetmore. The curators, at the present time, are getting$4,000 a year; the assistant curators, from $2,500 to $3,100, Justwithin the last six weeks, one of the associate curators, whom we are-paying $3,100. has received an offer of $4,600 from another organi-zation. I have offered to attempt to raise his salary to $4,000, so asto put him on a par with the other curators, but I can not go abovethat in justice to the other men.Mr. Wood. You could not do it anyhow, under the law, could you;you could not elevate this fellow above the rest of them \Doctor Wetmore. No: not with the funds we have available. Thisman is one of the six best botanists in the country. lie is the gen-tleman who has been preparing the reports on the flora of New Mex-ico and various other parts of our country and is doing very excellentwork.Mr. Wood. You say you have 80 of those curators?Doctor Wktm ore. I have 16 curator.-. The scientific -'all' in-cludes 80.Mr. Wood. What is the next highest to your curators; what do youcall them '.Doctor Wetmqre. Assistant curators.Mr. Wood. And next to them '. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 341Doctor Wetmore. The aids?scientific aids. The assistant curators,by the way, do not all receive $3,100; there is one group that gets$2,500 and another $3,100. Below those come the aids, who receivefrom $1,920 to $2,500.Air. Wood. Are these employees under civil service?Doctor Wetmore. All of them ; yes, sir.Mr. Wood. All have to pass civil-service examinations?Doctor Wetmore. Yes. sir.Air. Wood. In order to obtain their positions?Doctor Wetmore. Yes. sir.Mr. Wood. The fact is, the laborers have to do that too, do theynot?Doctor Wetmore. Yes.Mr. Wood. Do you every try to strike an average or try to ascer-tain, with reference to where you are on the classification list, bycombining all of your employees and striking an average of theirsalary and taking a like number of employees from any of the otherdepartments and striking their average, to see where you are?Doctor Wetmore. That is all tabulated in the sheets immediatelypreceding the table you have before you now, in the Budget volume.Doctor Abbot. Pages A96 to A110. In the Budget before you, youhave the different grades. We examined that the other day, sir, andI believe that in onhy the case of one grade were we on a par withthe average of the Government service in the District of Columbia.Mr. Wason. Are you much below the average?Doctor Abbot. Yes, sir. On the general average, it is about 300.Doctor Wetmore. 1 think the situation is very well reflected inthe annual turnover; that is, the separations from the service. Forthe past fiscal year that amounts to 25 per cent.Mr. Wood. Your turnover did ?Doctor Wetmore. Yes.Mr. Wood. Where does that occur mostly ?Doctor Wetmore. In the lower groups. We are very thankful andvery glad to say there is only a small turnover in the higher groupsas yet, but the men are getting restive and waiting to see what willhappen under the reclassification. They are becoming dissatisfied,and I begin to fear for the result. As I have said, one of our menwill go, shortly, to another institution at a considerable higher salaryunless I can do something for him, and I have three or four otherswho have been talking to me about similar changes?men who areimportant to our work.Mr. Wood. I see the general average of all employees is $1,899.70;your general average is $1,563. So it would appear your generalaverage is about $334 low.Doctor Wetmore. In simple justice to our emplo}rees, I think weshould look forward to the time when the various grades would re-ceive the average assigned under the reclassification act.Mr. Wood. Here is the situation that is not only common to yourdepartment but to all departments: If the bottom should happento fall out of these high prices (I do not know whether it ever will,or not), when we get back to normalcy, where we can live on anordinary wage, why all the people of this Government would be 342 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 receiving salaries beyond?suppose the living conditions now wereas they were before the war; they would be getting more thanthey ought to receive in proportion to what they were receiving then,but I do not suspect there is any chance that the Government wouldever have the hardihood to try to reduce those salaries.Doctor Wetmore. Mr. Chairman, is it not true at the present timethat our lower grades are receiving what would be the ordinarylabor wage at a much lower level of living than we have at thepresent time and, at the same time, men who are doing mental work,who are carrying on investigational work from which we may hopefor some profit to the Government, are receiving less than theyshould expect for the amount of time and effort they have spent ontheir training?Mr. Wood. I expect that is true. The plasterer to-day is receivingaway beyond what a college graduate gets, or a man who has spenta quarter of a century in acquiring knowledge for some scientificpurpose.Doctor Wetmore. Yes. Most of these men engaged on scientificwork have little conception of luxury in living. What they areafter is a comfortable living and to be unworried by worldly matter-,so that they may devote their entire attention to their research work.There was a gentleman in my office yesterday who comes from an-other institution, a professor in college, who told me he was just backfrom Sumatra, where he had been for a year on half pay, and thathe had mortgaged his salary for the coming year in order to payhis expenses to go there and studv the plants.Mr. Wood. Well, he is a real scientific enthusiast.Doctor Wetmore. He is.FREIGHT TRANSPORTATIONMr. Wood. Your principal item here next after salaries amountsto $17,300 for transportation?freight?Mr. Dorsey. That is ocean freight, largely, sir.Mr. Wood. Is that the transportation of these exchanges?Air. Dorsey. Yes, sir.Mr. Wood. All of it?Mr. Dorsey. Yes, sir; nothing else: rail and ocean freight.MAIL TRANSPORTATIONMr. Wood. Then there is $3,000 additional for mail transportation.Mr. Dorsey. That is for the Congressional Record, sir. The Con-gressional Record is sent out by mail for the Library of Congress togovernment recipients abroad and then, to some of the small coun-tries, where we do not get an accumulation sufficient to warrant theirsending by freight, ordinary publications are sent by mail so as notunduly to delay them.Mr, Wasox. J suppose it is advisable that they have them as soonas possible. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 343TRANSPORTING AND CONVEYING EQUIPMENTMr. Wood. Transporting and conveying equipment is $2,725.Mr. Dorset. It is largely boxes, sir, in which these things areshipped. "We buy new boxes and when the boxes are returned wemake them over. We save about $500 on that item by making overboxes in the institution. We have a carpenter there and employhim to make over these boxes, in order to use them over and overagain; sometimes a box will have a good top or another good sidesand by combining the good parts a box that costs $1.25 new we canmake over for 30 or 35 cents.AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYMr. Wood. The next item is American ethnology : For continuing ethnological researches among the American Indians and thenatives of Hawaii, the excavation and preservation of archseologic remainsunder the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including necessary em-ployees, the preparation of manuscripts, drawings, and illustrations, the pur-chase of books and periodicals, and traveling expenses, $58,720, of which amountnot to exceed $48,000 may be expended for personal services in the Districtof Columbia.What has become of the old Indian hunter?Doctor Abbott. I am sorry to say that Doctor Fewkes, to whom thecommittee has listened with great interest for many years, is unable tobe present to-day. I am sorry that is so, because I am sure the com-mittee will miss him as much as we do. I think perhaps Mr. Dorseyhad better speak to that item; he is pretty well familiar with theadministration of the bureau.STUDY OF MIGRATION OF AMERICAN INDIANMr. Dorset. The appropriation asked is the same as the currentyear. What is proposed to do is to carry on in addition to the regularresearch work of the bureau special exploration in Alaska. Duringthe past two years Doctor Fewkes has been devoting what money hecould to archaeological work in Alaska. Doctor Hrdlicka, of theNational Museum, was sent up there the summer of 1926, at the ex-pense of the bureau, to make a reconnaissance, tracing the migrationof the American Indian from Asia to this country across BeringStrait. Last summer, Doctor Fewkes assigned as much money as hecould devote to it for a follow-up expedition, of Mr. Collins, fromthe Museum, and Mr. Stewart, who went up to Nunivak Island, offthe coast of Alaska, where the Esquimos are the least changed byintercourse with the white people. They spent the summer thereand made collections and studies. The whole question of the settle-ment of Alaska is one that Doctor Fewkes desired to follow up,and a part of this money will be devoted to that purpose this year.Then Doctor Fewkes himself, last spring, went down to Green-ville, S. C, and made a reconnaissance down there. He wants tolake up that work in the South. There is a region there east ofthe Blue Ridge that he .says is a very promising field for archaeo-logical work, and he has Ween devoting a little money to that fromtime to time. ' 344 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1920Mr. Wood. Is there any supposition that the fellows who cameacross Bering Strait may have gotten down to South Carolina?Mr. Dorsey. Ultimately they got down to South Carolina.Mr. Wood. That is on the theory the Indians came from thatdirection ?Mr. Dorset. Yes. . Mr. Wood. Is there not another theory they may have come frombelov. jDoctor Abbott. An interesting thing that comes to my knowledgefrom reading on that subject during the past year is that there arcas many as 55 to 57 distinct stocks of Indians speaking Languageswhich are as distinct from each other as English is from Chinese.all included as American Indians. Of those different, absolutely sep-arate, language stocks, there are some 500 subdivisions speaking lan-guages as different, we will say, as English is from French or Italian.So that if these people all came originally, as their color and generalappearance would suggest, from a common stock somewhere, as overin Asia, they must have required enormous time to become so widelyscattered in both locality and language over America. DoctorHrdlicka, who is a great anthropologist, has made studies in Asiasome years ago where he found many persons who could not bedistinguished if they should be similarly clothed and set down amongour Indians. He feels sure that the Indians originally came fromAsia. Yet, if they did all descend from a common stock, that stockmust have begun to branch thousands and thousands of years ago;possibly we may say almost to the glacial period. The wide dif-fusion of those people around the two Americas is indeed indicativeof the fact that they came here so long ago that almost anythingcould have happened in the intervening time.Mr. Summers. In what part of Asia did he find these Indians?Mr. Dorsey. Back in Tibet, around in that section of the continentwhich lies behind the Chinese.Mr. Summers. The races are there now, or their remains \Mr. Dorsey. Living there.Doctor Abbott. Relics of ancient races, people actually residingthere, representing races that are different from the ordinary Chinese,Mongolian, or the like, but of a character so near like the NorthAmerican Indians that, as he says, should they be similarly clothedand set down here amongst them you could not tell one from theother.Doctor Wi.tmore. In regard to the coming of man across BeringStrait, man has crossed that body of water within a comparativelysmall number of years. There is a record of a body of Chukchifrom the northeastern coast of Siberia who came across about 80years ago and started to exterminate the Esquimos. They cameacross the Behring Sea and they had several very heavy battle-, butthe Esquimos finally gathered a considerable band of men and de-feated and destroyed the Chukchi along the Yukon River in north-western Alaska. Men who have visited that old battle field tell methe remains of the bodies and skeletons of men are still to be seenthere.Mr. Wood. You were speaking of the diversity of language asnegativing the assumption that all those settlers came from a general APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 345direction. I do not think that is conclusive, for this reason: In thePhilippines, there are 40 separate and distinct languages and morethan 80 dialects spoken among those people over there; yet theyall look alike as two peas. The Moros are different; but aside fromthat, they all look alike and are all Malay. How would you accountfor the diversity of tongue ?Doctor Abbott. Only on the assumption that very long time haselapsed since the ancestors of those people were of common stock. Ishould think, sir. it must have been thousands and thousands ofyears, mounting in the tens or even possibly hundreds of thousandsof years.Mr. Wood. Among those people?Doctor Abbott. Yes?so that the separation of languages had timeto assert itself.NO EVIDENCE OF HUMAN INHABITANTS PRIOR TO CLOSE OF ICE AGEMr. Wood. Have these scientific gentlemen ever agreed on theprobability as to the earliest period when there was any settlementhere?any inhabitants on this continent?Doctor Abbott. I think not, sir.Doctor Wetmore. That is a matter of argument. At the presenttime, the archaeologists, mainly under the leadership of DoctorHrdlicka, state there is no definite proof that man was here prior tothe close of the ice age. On the other hand, the paleontologists whohave been excavating the fossil fields in Florida, Oklahoma, NewMexico and other areas in the middle or southern regions of ourcountry, find remains of man, or artifacts and tools made by manmingled with bones of animals that are supposed to have existed only -during the ice age. They conclude, therefore, there is possibilitythat man came here during the Pleistocene or ice age. The matteris one of long controversy, and at the present time far from beingsettled. Within the past few months, there has been discovered aquarry in northeastern New Mexico in which are the bones of anextinct species of buffalo that is assumed to have lived during thePleistocene, accompanied by arrow points of peculiar form. Inseveral places these arrow points have been found to be resettingbeneath bones of the extinct buffalo, which perhaps is an indicationthat man was here during the Pleistocene. A point yet to be decidedis whether or not these buffalo are really Pleistocene animals, orwhether they may have existed after the close of that period intowhat are known as Recent times. At any rate, it seems certain manwas contemporaneous with them. I may say, further, that the arrowpoints found are of a peculiar shape, unlike those used by othermodern American Indians, which might indicate considerable antiq-uity for them.Mr. Wood. About how much?Doctor Wetmore. That is a difficult question to answer.REQUESTS FOB SALARY INCREASESMr. Newton. Mr. Chairman, I musi Leave to go on the floor and,if I may, would like to say just a woni. Several of these items thaiare under subdivision 2 of the memorandum submitted l>v Mr. Moore 346 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929you have gone into in part under International Exchanges, wherethe Budget has not allowed enough to take care of the advance inthe classification. It does seem to me that in an institution likethe Smithsonian we should take as good care of the scientific em-ployees as we can, under the provisions of law. and I hope you willgo into that very carefully and see if you dy not agree with us thatthis should be done.Mr. Wood. Were those presented to the Budget?Mr. Newton. Yes.Mi-. Dorsey. It is in our preliminary and supplemental estimates.Mr. Newton. The Budget has taken the attitude that, in a desireto restrict expenditures and so on. here was a small in-tiliulinuthat could be forgotten and not placed on the same plane as theothers.Mr. Wood. Is this cut that is made in the estimates you submittedto tiie Budget an arbitrary cut of a certain percent?Mr. Dorsey. No, sir; we submitted those in the preliminary andsupplementary estimates.Doctor Abbot. I may say the Budget has, this year, given us quitea substantial increase in many lines over what we ha I before: butthey did not see their way clear to make an increase in the salariesof deserving employees which would be in accordance with law, ifthe money was available, and which we feel such men as we haveought to get.Mr. Wood. Do all these additional appropriations you are requesting above the Budget estimates apply on the increase of salaries?Mr. Newton. In subdivision 2: yes.Mr. Wood. What about the other subdivision; what is to be donewitli that ( INSUFFICIENCY OF APPROPRIATION FOR FEINTINGMr. Newton. That is a $10,000 item of printing. We have alwaysbeen behind on the printing.Mr. Wood. You do not seem ever to be able to catch up. Everytime we give you this additional appropriation you say you are go-ing to become current and catch up, but you never do.Mr. Newton. We have been making some progress along that line;but we were so far behind, not only in one division but in several,in the ethnological and also the National Museum. I think, has beenfar behind, it has been impossible to catch up. And it is going totake several years to do so. But we can not catch up if we are goingto be cut down one year and given our estimate the next. It is verydiscouraging to the scientist to write his paper and then have it layaround and not be published for two or three or four years, and insome respects it ceases to be of value.Mr. Wood. How many years are they behind in these bureaus?Mr. Newton. I could not answer that exactly.Mr. Dorsky. The Bureau of Ethnology lias something like, I shouldsay. between twenty and thirty thousand dollar- worth of manu-scripts down there now that are practically ready for publication.Mr. Wood. How much doe- that mean in printing?Mr. Dorset. I say in printing or the cost of printing. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 347Mr. Wood. Twenty to thirty thousand ?Mr. Dorset. Yes, sir.Mr. Wood. Suppose an appropriation was given to print and bindeverything you have down there, how much would it take to makeyou current, so that you would not have to come up here and be ask-ing every once in a while for more?Mr. Dorset. That is pretty hard to say. I should say, speakingfor the bureau that if you increased the appropriation by giving us$25,000 more this year for printing under the bureau, that we wouldget current, sir.Mr. Newton. That would be under the Bureau of Ethnology ?Mr. Dorset. Under the Bureau of Ethnology only.Mr. Newton. That does not take in the Museum?Doctor Wetmore. The National Museum is, from this total appro-priation of $90,000 for printing and binding, allotted this year $44,-000. At the present time, December 20, there is available for theremainder of the year approximately $9,000. On the 1st of July lastI had an accumulation of over $13,000 worth of manuscripts, whichwere then sent up to the Government Printing Office. Enough havegone up in the meanwhile to exhaust the available appropriation,with the exception of $9,000, and there are still six months of theyear ahead of the institution with a steady flow of material comingin for publication.Mr. Wood. Is all this material on which you are in arrears readyto be printed? \Doctor Wetmore. Yes. In the National Museum, I may say thereis not at this moment an actual arrears, but on July 1 next therewill be. In the Bureau of American Ethnology, on the contrary,there is an accumulation of manuscrips of several years' standing.The situation in previous years has been this : We have had availablean appropriation of $90,000 for printing and binding. Each year, indiscussion before the Bureau of the Budget, it has been consideredby that body that we could get along with less money and they havereduced us below that sum of $90,000 and Congress, on each occasion,has seen fit to bring back the sum to the original $90,000.Mr. Wood. How much did thev give vou this vear?Doctor Wetmore. $90,000.Mr. Wood. The Budget did ?Doctor Wetmore. Yes; no cut.Mr. Wood. I thought you said that they did cut you ?Doctor Wetmore. On previous vears. This vear, it stands at$90,000.Mr. Xewtox. I was about to say that the requests that have gonein have been cut down in these preceding years and this committeehas restored the amount of the request. In this particular year, asI understand it, the request put in was for $100,000, instead of$90,000, which was allowed last year by this committee, and theBudget allowed them last year's figure, or $90,000.Mr. Wood. They art just one jump behind all the time.Mr. Xewtux, Sometimes they have beef) two. but this item is justone jump behind. I presume^ to get lip, both in (he Bureau ofEthnology and National Museum, it would probably require', roughly 348 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 speaking, about $35,000 more than what has been allowed by theBudget.Mr. Dorset. It would take $25,000 for the Bureau of Ethnology;J do not know about the National Museum.Mr. Wood. $25,000 for that (Mr. Newton. For the Bureau of Ethnology to get up to date.Mr. Wood. And $10,000 for what other division!1Mr. Newton. For the National Museum; we are behind there. Isthat approximately correct, Doctor?Doctor Wetmorf.. That would be approximately correct; yes.Mr. Wood. Do you think if $35,000 was appropriated and madeavailable, that you would not be asking for any increases here everany more?Mr. Dorset. Not for a considerable time, sir. Forever is a longtime.Mr. Newton. That would allow the Smithsonian to get currentwith the work and then, if the Budget would allow our requeststhereafter, we would not ask for any more money.VALUE OF PUBLICATIONSMr. Moore. Doctor Wetmore, will you tell the gentlemen whodetermines what shall be published and what not ?Doctor Wetmore. In a general way. we handle the material inthe order in which it comes to us; but, where certain publicationsappear to be especially meritorious, they are given a preference overothers. In the National Museum, we give a certain preference topublications describing new species or new forms, because knowledgeof that type is of particular value to scientific workers and should bemade available as soon as possible. Following that, we take thecomprehensive manuscripts that give detailed information of groupsof animals or plants, and then the more general papers.Doctor Abbot. There is a committee which deals with every paperwhich is submitted?an expert committee. The paper is submittedto some one who is regarded as particularly expert in that line.Sometimes, if an expert be not found available in the Governmentservice, it is even referred outside; we take men known in all partsfo the country who are most expert in their lines and get a reporton every paper as to whether it is worth printing, before it isprinted.Mr. Newton. I want to say, in closing, that I think the public,generally, gets a great deal out of the work of the Smithsonian andis becoming more interested year by year. I think that can beillustrated in this way: We went down a few days ago and therewas a piece of some kind of borax, I think, or something of thekind, and they took a ton of that and, after the scientists got throughwith it they had a ton and a half of product from it. That is theonly thing I know anything about where you multiply the weightand quantity. .Mr. Wood. These oyster fellows down here can beat that.Mr. Newton. I have not dealt with them, so I am not familiarwith that. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 349Mr. Dorsey. Here are a bunch of letters I brought up here withme, from school teachers and others. Here is one from a surveyor,who winds up by saying ? The information from these papers was precisely whafc I have heen seekingand could not find except in your institution. Many thanks.Then there are letters from high-school teachers, college people,and one from the University of Minnesota asking for a duplicatecopy of one of the Smithsonian publications that we sent them some-time before, as they state theirs had absolutely been worn out by use.These are all appreciative letters from people who make practical useof the information in our reports, sir.Mr. Newton. I hope when you acknowledge that you will men-tion the name of one of the regents. Thank you very much, Mr.Chairman. PERSONAL SERVICES IN WASHINGTONMr, Wood. Now this item of $58,720 : There is $47,340 of that forpersonal services.Mr. Dorset. Yes, sir.Mr. Wood. You have the same number of employees and theamount is the same as you asked for in 1928?Mr. Dorset. Practically the same. There has been very littlechange in that. If the committee sees fit to allow the step up, Mr.Chairman, the total of the appropriation would be $60,300.Mr. Wood. Would be $60,300?Mr. Dorset. And the salary limitation would be increased to$49,580.Mr. Wood. What per cent of the employees of this institution, allof the institutions under your superv-ison clown there, are absentwithout pay throughout the year?Mr. Dorset. A very small per cent, sir.Mr. Wood. As much as three per cent ?Mr. Dorset. I should not think so ; nothing like that.Mr. Wood. What do you do with the salary when it is unearnedby them and unpaid to them ?Mr. Dorset. That is the only thing we have to use, sir, for buildingup : in the case of the Museum, of building up collections or doingnew work. That is done through the turn-over.Mr. Wood. Do you use it for promotions?Mr. Dorset. Oh, no, sir.TRAVELING EXPENSESMr. Wood. You have an item of $6,510 for travel expenses : Whatis that \Mr. Dorset. That is field work; these men who are sent out inthe field; field expenses. These ethnologists go out. For example,the man who goes to Alaska has his travel and subsistence all paid.Mr. Wood. How many men do you have out doing that kind ofwork ?Mr. Dorset. We have four. There are about 9 men down there,but we have out in the field each year, I should say, about 8 or 10 350 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929men. Sometimes they are not regular employees of the oureau;sometimes Doctor Wetmore details a man to go out and make aspecial investigation for the bureau, which pays his expenses.EDUCATIONAL EQUIPMENTMr. Wood. The largest item you have here is for educational equip-ment, $3,875, under equipment.Mr. Dorset. That is for books and the purchase of manuscripts.Miss Densmore, who is not a regular employee of the bureau, isengaged in making investigations of Indian music that has beenvery highly thought of. Her work has been reproduced in operas.We buy manuscripts from her. We buy other manuscripts, too, thatare prepared by men not connected with the bureau. Here is a bookof Miss Densmore's in which you see illustrations of specimens ofIndian music and musical instruments.Mr. Wood. From where are these specimens gathered?Doctor Wetmore. These are specimens in the Xational Museumthat come from all over the world. This particular group dealswith the American Indian from all parts of the country.Mr. Wood. These are in the institution, are they?Doctor Wetmore. Yes.Mr. Wood. According to this book, I see the piano is an evolutionof the dulcimer, isn't it '.Doctor Wetmore. Yes. We have in the Xational Museum a groupof 200 or more pianos showing the development of the instrumentin all its different forms from the beginning. They have been placedthere by Mr. Hugo Worch, of Washington, without expense to uswhatever.Mr. Wood. Full-sized pianos?Doctor Wetmore. Yes. Mr. Worch is deeply interested in thesubject and has, for many years, bought up all the types of strangeantique pianos he could find, has taken them to his own place ofbusiness here in Washington, refinished them, and put them in goodcondition, and then brought them down and given them to us as anoutright gift. They form the most wonderful collection of thatkind in the world.Mr. Wood. Will they operate?Doctor Wetmore. They will. We keep them closed in such a way.however, that they can not be played ; otherwise we would have bed-lam let loose occasionally by some of the school visitors.Mr. Wood. Have you a collection showing the development of thetelephone ?Doctor Wetmore. Yes: we have the original Bell instruments.Mr. Wood. We have some of those developments at Purdue. Somewere very crude, weren't they \Doctor Wetwore. Very crude, indeed.international catalogue OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATUREMr. Wood. The next is the International Catalogue of ScientificLiterature : International Cataloarue of Scientific Literature: For the cooperation of theUnited Stales in the work of the International Catalogue of Scientific Litera- APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 351 ture, including the preparation of a classified index catalogue of Americanscientific publications for incorporation in the international catalogue, clerkhire, purchase of books and periodicals, traveling expenses, and other necessaryincidental expenses, $7,260, of which amount not to exceed $7,100 may be ex-pended for personal services in the District of Columbia.Doctor Abbot. Mr. Gunnell will speak to that, sir.Mr. Gunnell. We ask the same appropriation we have asked forseveral years. As I have stated before the Budget and this commit-tee each year, a large part of each yearly appropriation reverts tothe Treasury, as the organization is in such an unfortunate financialcondition that no publication has been possible since the war. Butevery effort is being made to keep the organization alive, so thatwhen reorganization is possible we will have a living organization.Each year Congress has made the necessary appropriation so that inthe event of publication being resumed necessary data would beimmediately available; in asking for appropriations each year Ihave promised to turn back as much as possible to the Treasury. In1925, $1,52S reverted to the Treasury; in 1926, $1,638; and in 1927there will be $768.Mr. Wood. What do you do under this appropriation?Mr. Gunnell. Keep the functions of this bureau going, thesefunctions are to provide data for making a complete catalogue andsubject index of the scientific literature of the United States, to beassembled with similar data from other countries and publishedthrough international cooperation in London. Since the war condi-tions have made it impossible actually to publish the work. Therewas a conference held in Brussels in 1922, and all foreign bureausagreed to keep the routine work current and to keep the records asmuch up to date as possible, pending the time when publicationcould be resumed. Our part of the work is done by this bureau.Air. Wood. How much material have you got together?Mr. Gunnell. In 1922, the last publication, we furnished approxi-mately 30,000 references. The scientific literature of the UnitedStates each year is about 10 per cent of the whole. The catalogueof the publications is not classified, for when reorganization takesplace classification will be done under modern conditions, whichhave changed and are changing considerably. A large part of themoney we save each year represents the cost of classification. Wekeep records which are essential for indexing but not those neededfor classifying.Mr. Wood. Is all this scientific literature classified and cataloguedin the Congressional Library?Mr. Gunnell. No, sir.Mr. Wood. No portion of it?Mr. Gunnell. I could not say that ; but there is no systematicclassification or collection of the literature of pure science, which isthe function of the international catalogue. There was no similarorganization in the world when this work began, in 1900; and thereis no similar organization now.Mr. Wood. Do you mean to say there is any sort of scientific lit-erature that is published in this country or in Europe than can notbe found, by catalogue or index, in the Congressional Library?Mr. Gunnell. If you knew exactly what you were looking forby title and author, you could find it in the Library of Congress, or81202?28 23 352 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929in any well-organized library. But if you are looking up a subject,there is no catalogue published that would give you the informa-tion desired. May I give you a little description of what thisorganization is \Mr. "Wood. Yes; I think you had better do so.Mr. GixxELL. The first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.Professor Henry, in 1856, realizing the necessity of an internationalcatalogue of scientific literature, brought the subject to the attentionof the British Association for Advancement of Science, at the Edin-burgh meeting of that year, and, because of his suggestion, the greatcatalogue of the Royal Society of London was issued. This was acatalogue of papers published by scientific societies and was pub-lished up to 1880. It was then realized the enterprise involved toomuch labor for any one country or any one society to undertake and,through the Royal Society, an invitation was issued to all countriesand to all scientific societies of the world to cooperate and the Inter-national Catalogue came into existence. Publication began in 1900.Seventeen volumes were published each year, one for each of the 17principal divisions of science beginning with mathematics. Theseannual volumes contain a classified index record of all the currentscientific publications of the world. The publication continued for1-1 years, through the issue for 1914, the last volume of which waspublished in 1922', when the executive committee had to stop publica-tion on account of the war conditions.Mr. Wood. The conditions have not been so readjusted that theycould be resumed ?Mr. Gunnell. No, sir. I received a letter last week from a friendin London, in reply to a letter asking what could be done aboutresuming publication. He said, speaking of the impoverished con-dition of the European countries, that the governments and privateindividuals were so impoverished that it was practically impossiblefor them yet to resume their part of the expenses of publication.Mr. Wood. Then there is not much use of this appropriation beingcontinued, is there?Mr. Gttxnell. The only use of it is, as I have stated to this com-mittee each year, that the organization is kept in existence. Itwas organized under great difficulties, as you probably know betterthan I do, getting the United States Government to make an appro-priation for an international undertaking, in the first place, is verydiflicult and the same difficulty exists with the other 33 Governmentsof the world. If the organization is abandoned now it will be prac-tically impossible ever to start it again.Mr. Wood. It kind of looks like il is abandoned, don't it?Mr. Gunnell. No, sir; I think not.Mr. Wood. In the meantime we are paying out $7,000 a year hereand getting nowhere.Mr. Gunnell. Well, you are getting records of all the scientificpublications of the United States which are available in the event ofthe publication being resumed.Mr. Wood. Suppose it is not resinned, then what '. We have justbeen wasting this money all these years back?Doctor Wetmore. The material itself will be valuable in ourown research work in the Smithsonian Institution. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 353Mr. Wood. You could get all that material for your own pur-poses in the Congressional Library.Doctor Wetmore. Yes; but the man would be under the necessityof making his own research and searching of titles and it would beconsiderable labor.Mr. Wood. You think, then, it is of sufficient importance to you,even though these other nations do not function, for you to maintain,this activity ?Doctor Wetmore. At the present time, I do.Mr. Wood. What do you mean by " at the present time? "Doctor Wetmore. Under existing conditions, as they are now.Mr. Gunnell. The International Catalogue furnished what waspractically a digest of scientific subjects and, just as a legal digestis necessary to the lawyer, this is necessary to the scientific man.Mr. Wood. Yes, but all you are getting now is the records of theUnited States.Mr. Gunnell. Yes, sir ; that is all we have ever done. We simplydo our part of the world work, being 1 of the 33 bureaus.Mr. Wood. Was not the result of the labors of these other countriesavailable to you ?Mr. Gtjnnell. It was all compiled in the 17 annual volumes; allassembled and published in London.Mr. Wood. And you are getting none of their material now, areyou?Mr. Gunxell. No, sir; and they are getting none of ours, be-cause they have not the money to publish.Mr. Wood. It is not any use to go on, if you are getting none oftheir work and the other countries are getting none of yours. Sothat all you have here is that which originates in the United States.Mr. Gtjnnell. It is the record to be assembled with the work fromother countries, to be published in the 17 annual volumes which willbe available when we can pay to have them printed.Doctor Abbot. In other words, the great hope of the world isthat some big institution that has the money will see its way to makean appropriation to start this international publication again. Inthe meantime, the different governments of the world are continuingthis assembling of the data which would go into these publicationsand are keeping on with the hope that, within some few years, somepublic-spirited individual will give the money actually necessaryto publish this information which is being secured.Mr. Wood. What contribution was made by the different countriestoward this publication?Mr. Moore. As I understand from Mr. Gunnell. all the work isdone now that was done when this international organization wasactive, except you do not assemble it in connection with the resultsof the other nations?Mr. Gunnell. No, sir.Mr. Moore. But you are making a collection of the material?Mr. (hxxiXL. Of our index: but we arc not classifying it. becausethere have been so many changes in scientific knowledge. Fbt exam-ple, when this work began, we knew Nothing of radio; il was onlytlie Hertzian ray then, and only scientific men had ever even heardof it. When publication is resumed methods of classification will 354 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929have to be brought up to date. And if we classified this materialnow, it would all have to be reclassified when new classificationschedules are made; therefore, we are not classifying it, but turningthe money needed for that purpose back to the Treasury.Mr. Moore. I think Mr. AVood wants to know for what purposeyou are now spending money.Mr. Gunnell. To assemble the data necessary to make a classifiedcard index of the scientific publications of the United States in aform usable for the international catalogue.Mr. Summers. Would it serve any useful purpose if the Interna-tional Catalogue is never published?Mr. Gunnell. We would have a catalogue of the scientific publi-cations of the United States in manuscript card form.Doctor Abbott. Anj'one who wants to find out anything can cometo the Smithsonian Institution and consult you and get it?Mr. Gunnell. Yes.Mr. Wood. Are these other countries doing anything towards get-ting material together?Mr. Gunnell. Yes, sir; they made the promise at the meeting of1922 in Brussels that they would all keep the work up. The wordingof the resolution was : " That the convention is of opinion that theinternational organization should be kept in being through mutualagreement to continue as far as possible the work of the regionalbureaus until such time as it may be economically possible to resumepublication."Mr. Wood. But you do not get any material at all from them ?Mr. Gunnell. No, sir.Mr. Wason. And do not send any material to them ?Mr. Gunnell. No, sir; we never received it directly. The materialwe collected here was sent to London where the central bureau waslocated and there assembled with all the records from all the worldand there published.Mr. Wood. And published in London?Mr. Gunnell. Yes, sir.Mr. Wood. How many volumes were published?Mr. Gunnell. Seventeen volumes a year for 14 years.Mr. Wood. How much did they cost to publish ?Mr. Gunnell. They cost $85 a year for each annual set of 17volumes. That simply covered the cost of printing and distributing.It was published at cost; there were no free copies but each sub-scriber paid for his proportion of the cost of printing and assembling.Mr. Wood. Then the cost to each one of the countries was notvery considerable?Mr. Gunnell. $85 for each set each year.Mr. Wood. And it was practically self-sustaining?Mr. Gunnell. In 1914, it was practically self-sustaining.Mr. Wood. They do not take much interest in it over there, Iguess ; that is about the substance of it.Mr. Gunnell. They take considerable interest in it over there;but when the franc is now worth 4 cents, and was worth 21 centswhen work began, and they have to pay at the same rate, it is quitean item. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 355Mr. Wood. It is just due to the general chaotic condition in thecountries over there.Mr. Gunnell. That is what I have tried to stress in my annualreports.Mr. Wood. You have three people; I suspect you had better getbusjT or we might have to drop this activitj^. I am not blamingyou at all; but, from the information we have, it does not look likeit is of much use to continue it much longer.ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORYXow we come to the Astrophysical Observatory : Astrophysical Observatory : For maintenance of the Astrophysical Observa-tory, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including assistants,purchase of books, periodicals, and apparatus, making necessary observationsin high altitudes, repairs, and alterations of buildings, preparation of manu-scripts, drawings and illustrations, traveling expenses, and miscellaneous ex-penses, $32,060, of which amount not to exceed $29,780 may be expended forpersonal services in the District of Columbia.Who will tell us about that?STUDIES AND MEASUREMENTS OF STJN INTENSITYDoctor Abbot. The Astrophysical Observatory at the presenttime maintains a station on Table Mountain, in California, over-looking the Mohave Desert and another station near Calama, Chile,at 9.000 feet, where they make daily measurements of the intensity ofthe sun's heat, which is the energy which keeps life going. If oneshould ask you : Is the sun's heat growing less or more ? Does itfluctuate from day to day ? Is there a probability that these fluctua-tions could be used for forecasting weather conditions? We wouldhave to reply that the measurements have only been made since 1918,and there has not a long enough period elapsed so that one couldforecast whether next season is going to be a good or poor one. Un-fortunately, Sir Isaac Xewton and all the old astronomers made nomeasurements of this kind, and it is only since 1918 that we beganmaking measurements regularly in Chile and continuing here in theUnited States, also, that we have a continuous series of observationsof the heat of the sun on which all life depends. I hope this workwill be carried on through another generation so that, in the nextgeneration, they will have a basis from which they can compare theclimatic and weather elements of the world, with solar radiation,and actually be able to tell whether the variation of the heat of thesun affects the weather.In the meantime, in the past year, some very interesting resultshave been obtained. In the first place, as in former years, we findthat when the activity of the sun is great, as visual observationswould indicate it, as showing in the sun spqts, and other features ofactivity on the sun's disc observed telescopically, then the radial ionfrom the sun, the heat we receive from the sun. is also greater thanthe average. So. along with an eleven-year march of the sun-spotactivity, there is a change of the intensity of the sun's rays which goto warm the earth of approximately 3 per cent. 356 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929FORECASTING OF WEATHER CONDITIONSThen, again, we found within the last year by analysis of pastobservations that there is a regular periodicity in the variation ofthe sun?a periodicity of approximately 25% months; so that, ifthis continues, and if it shall be found there are changes in terrestrialaffairs which hang on to the variations of the sun. we shall be able toforecast, by this periodicity of 25% months, which has existed forthe last six years, what Weather conditions to expect.Mr. Wood. What do you mean by "periodicity"?Doctor Abbot. I mean to say that there is a regularity to the in-crease and decrease in intensity of the sun's heat with a period of amaximum of 25% months. If that condition continues hereafter,there will be a means of forecasting two years in advance whatevermay hang on that periodicity. We have also found a less markedpediodicity of fifteen months and another one of eleven months. Itlooks hopeful, then, that whatever may be found to hang on thevariations of the sun we may be able to forecast by means of theseperiodicities which we have found to persist for the last six years.Mr. Wood. Is that really your idea, that they will be able '?> tellwhat the weather conditions will be on a given day a number of yearshence ?Doctor Abbot. There is quite a strong feeling among scientificpeople that this is a very hopeful line. There are some, even, whohave an impression they are already able to predict. I have here,for example, a report which I presume you saw in the public pressthe other day, that a certain gentleman here in Washington is criti-cizing the Weather Bureau for not going into this. The WeatherBureau, very rightfully, is very conservative in relation to thesematters and proposes to wait until we have a long series of accurateobservations before they will attempt to apply it; but others, who arenot responsible for the expenditure of large amounts of public funds,and who are free lances, and can do as they like, have gone into thesubject of the possibility of making predictions on the basis ofthe variations of the sun. Such a man as Mr. Clayton, who wasformerly chief forecaster of the Argentine Government and who isnow a private citizen in Massachusetts. He lias a bureau whichactually makes forecasts for parties who will pay him and he getsthe information as to the state of the sun by consulting the WeatherBureau maps, on which, for the last year or so, our values givingthe status of solar radiation have been printed every day. By theaid of that information he is making forecasts which his clients, someof them, regard as quite valuable. For example, the Boston RetailTrade Board, made a comparison, extending over 371 consecutivedays (that is to say. for a little more than a year), for the53 weeks ending October 17, 1927. According to their comparison,for which Mr. Clayton was in no way responsible, for it was doneentirely independent of him?he did not even know they were mak-ing this comparison?they concluded that he was right on 244 daysout of the 371. the Weather Bureau being as they state right forBoston on 148 days. On precipitation, as they state Clayton wasright on 234 days: the Weather Bureau on 177 day.-. Further, theystate that the Weather Bureau predictions arrived at the different APPEOPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 357chambers of commerce 19 hours before the next business day; thatClayton's forecasts, being given out for seven-day intervals, arrivedon an average, 89 hours before the event. This report, whichthey got out privately for members of the Boston Retail TradeBoard, seems to have been spread about some, for I receievd a copyof it from a Washington man by the name of Brown sometime ago.Mr. Wood. Don't you think it would be a good idea for us to dis-pense with our Weather Bureau and get Clayton?Doctor Abbot. I do not mean to recommend any such thing asthat at all. The United States Weather Bureau is a very excellentand able organization and, naturally, is a very conservative organiza-tion, seeing that they have the responsibility for spending somecouple of millions of the Government's funds.Mr. Wood. How does it come that Clayton is doing a better jobthan they are ?Doctor Abbot. I asked him on what basis he made his predictions ; I was in New England two or three weeks ago and I asked him onwhat basis he was making these forecasts which were reported, andhe stated it was from a study of the variation of the sun by theSmithsonian's Astrophysical Observatory, which is the only one inthe world making this investigation. Now he states that it is bystudies he has made extending over a number of years and dealingwith the condition of affairs not only in Boston, but all over theUnited States and Canada, and even different parts of the world,and comparing the conditions with the variations of the sun, thathe has been able to lay a ground-work (which is in his knowledgealone; he is the only one who has clone this), by which he makesthese forecasts. He even told me that, based upon these periodicitiesof which I spoke a moment ago, he felt he was now in a position tooffer a seasonal forecast. Several gentlemen representing differentinterests having approached him, he was offering to make theseseasonal forecasts for them for a certain sum of money which, ifthey were not satisfied after the end of a couple of years, he wouldreturn to them. That seemed to be a fair proposition.Now I am merely reporting this, Mr. Chairman, in connectionwith your inquiries; not because I hold a brief for Clayton or any-body else. But, as I say, the work being done by Clayton is basedon the observations of the Astrophysical Observatory, which is theonly institution in the world making these measurements. It seemsto give promise of a possible improvement in weather forecasting inthe years to come. I think, sir, the promise is sufficient so that theexpenditure of the money, to keep these observations going, is wellwarrantedMr. Wood. Do you get any practical returns from the observationsthus far made in our Weather Bureau forecasting; do they take ad-vantage of the results of your observations ?Doctor Abbot. I think they are not ready to do so yet, sir. Theyhave been publishing them, as I remarked, for the last year or twoon their weather maps.Mr. Dorset. They started last spring a year ago.Doctor Abbot. For the last two years, now, they have been pub-lishing on the daily weather map the results which we telephone to 358 APPEOPEIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929them each morning, representing the state of the sun as we observedit in Chile for the preceding day.Mr. Wood. Have you had anybody trying his hand at forecastingfrom these observations?Doctor Abbot. No, sir. According to the law the Governmentforecasting is all in the hands of the Weather Bureau.Mr. Wood. I understand; I meant not for public use. but as a partof your experimentation.Doctor Abbot. We have felt, sir, the matter of getting observa-tions of the condition of the sun was as much as we could attend to,and the exceedingly complex and laborious service of trying toreduce solar observations to systems of forecasting was not ours,but in the field of the meteorologists.Mr. Wood. If you do not apply the result of your experimentationto some practical use, how do you know whether you are gettinganywhere or not ?Doctor Abbot. We leave that to the experts in those lines, sir.The matter of making such observations of the sun is one which isexceedingly difficult. We use apparatus which is sensitive to changesof a millionth of a degree in temperature, and we have to allow forthe losses of the solar rays in their passage through the ocean of at-mosphere above us. which is loaded with dust, water, vapor, clouds,and the like. It is an exceedingly difficult thing to get accuratemeasurements. We feel that this is our job, and the job of applyingthem to forecasting is the work of the professional meteorologists.Mr. Wood. Does this man Clayton have access to your observationsor record of observations; does he rely upon that in any way?Doctor Abbot. Only so far as he gets them indirectly from us.We could not. of course, using Government money to obtain theseobservations, supply them directly to a private individual for com-mercial forecasting purposes. We do supply them to the UnitedStates Weather Bureau, which publishes them every day upon theweather map. DESCRIPTION OF " SUN SPOT *'Mr. Wood. What makes those sun spots that seem to be controlling?Doctor Abbot. The sun spots, sir. are sort of whirlpools in thesolar gases. You must recall that the sun. being twice as hot evenat its surface as an arc light, is so hot that none of the ordinarymaterial such as iron or metal of other kinds can exist in solid form,or even in liquid form: they are all in a gaseous form: but, owingto the enormous size of the sun (it is some 350,000 times as heavy asthe earth), the gravity up there is perfectly tremendous, and com-presses these gases so that they arc as dense or even more densethan water?notwithstanding their gaseous condition. Still, theyare gases. And in those gases, just as you see in the atmospheresometimes of the desert, there are whirlpools which form. Sucha thing is a sun spot. This whirlpool in the case of the sungradually rises upwards, just as you see in the whirlpool in theatmosphere, and as it comes up it arrive- at a region of less pres-sure. The pressure increases very rapidly as you go down intothe body of the sun. As the gases are brought up by the whirl- APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 359pool they naturally expand, and in expanding they become cooler(just as any gas will if allowed to expand). That is the reasonthe sun spot looks dark, for the gases in a sun spot are coolerthan those which surround them. I say they are cooler; but,when you reflect that the sun's surface is twice as hot as an arclight, the coolness of the sun spot is not sufficient to make itrealty very cool. If seen alone, apart from their brilliant back-ground they would glow more brightly than an electric light fila-ment.So the sun spot is a center of a circulatory outwardly directed mo-tion, bringing the gases there higher to a region of diminished pres-sure and thereby cooling them. There is, in connection with it, amagnetic field for, as the late Professor Rowland showed, the rota-tion of charges of electricity of which the solar gases are full isequivalent to current. As you know, in electric telegraphy, the cur-rent produces a magnetic effect. So that there is a magnetic fieldin the sun spot. Then again, those fields are very curious, in thatthe polarity of them is so remarkable. The sun spots come in pairs;for instance, one will be a north pole, the other will be a south pole.But if in the northern hemisphere of the sun the advancing spot is ofnorth polarity; in the southern hemisphere the advancing sun spotwould be of south polarity. But after a period of 11 years haselapsed, and a new group of sun spots begins to arise, the polarity isjust the reverse. So that, in order to bring the sun back to the con-dition which it has to-day, 22 years must elapse; there is a periodthere of 22 years.Mr. Wood. When one of those spots is created, does it exercise itsinfluence for 22 years?Doctor Abbot. I mean, sir, the condition which creates the NorthPole, in the northern hemisphere of the sun, of the advancing spotwill be repeated 22 years from now, so that there will be anotherpair of spots rising at that time in which the advancing spot will beof north polarity on the northern hemisphere.Mr. Wood. Wliat has become of the sun dogs I used to see when Iwas a boy?Doctor Abbot. I think maybe you would see them yet if you hada suitable occasion. It takes a very curious condition of our atmos-phere to produce those.Mr. Wood. We used to see them every winter when it was coldenough ; sun dogs would come out in our section of the country everywinter.Doctor Abbot. But, Mr. Chairman, at that time you were not aMember of Congress, you see, and now you are staying here in Wash-ington in the smoke of a large city instead of where you were lookingat them at that time.Mr. Wood. That was out in Indiana, just about straight west ofhere.Doctor Abbot. I think maybe if you were out there in the sameplace you would see them now, sir.Mr. Wood. Maybe my eyesight is not as good as it used to be;I have not seen them for a long time. 360 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929Doctor Abbot. Those sun spots you were inquiring about are oftenso large that one could drop the whole world into one of them with-out touching the edges at all.Mr. Wood. Is there anything in this theory of the sun sloughing offand netting smaller each year?Doctor Abbot. That}, sir, is a recent theory which accounts for theradiation of both the sun and the stars. It was formerly a matterof entire uncertainty what was the source of the enormous quantityof radiation which the sun and stars emit. At this distance the sunsends so much energy that, if turned into mechanical work, it wouldequal a horsepower per square yard. If you would take a sphereas big as 93,000,000 miles radius (the earth's solar distance) andcount the number of square yards of surface upon it. you will see thenumber of horsepower the sun is sending.! The source of that enor-mous output for a long time was uncertain; but in recent years ithas been shown the atom of hydrogen, for example, consists of onepositive and one negative electric charge, and these arc very close to-gether^ so close in fact that in a space as large as dice you play back-gammOn with, there are 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 of the molecules,twice as many atoms, and each atom composed of a large number ofthese electric charges. You can imagine how small the region is inwhich these electric charges rotate, but the opposite electric chargesare kept apart by their furious revolution. If they should stop, thenthere would be annihilation, so that the atom would cease to be. It isthought now the sun and stars furnish their tremendous amount ofenergy by the actual annihilation of the atoms of which they are com-posed. The sun, under that theory, is reducing in mass, and if itcontinued to radiate at the present rate forever would eventually beentirely destroyed. It has been computed, however, there is sufficientmatter residing in the sun at the present time to last through15,000,000,000,000 of years.ESTIMATES FOR 1929Mr. Wood. Now, your appropriation this year is just the same as itwas last year?Doctor Abbot. Yes. sir; with the exception of the change in classi-fication. Should that be made, there will beMr. Wood. How much additional would that be?Mr. Doksey. The total appropriation would be $33,200; the salarylimitation would be $30.920?an addition of $1,140.LOCATION AND MAINTENANCE COST OF STATIONSMr. Wood. Are you still operating that plant down in Chile?Doctor Abbot. Yes. sir. That is our best station; it is at an alti-tude of 9,000 feet, has a beautiful sky, and we get the best resultsfrom there.Mr. Wood. Have you one in Arizona?Doctor Abbot. We moved that one over into California at theexpense of a friend of the institution. That has proved to be decid-edly a better place. They have last year observed on 80 per cent ofthe days, whereas they observed on only 70 per cent of the days in APPROPKIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 361Arizona. It is about 2,000 feet higher than the former station andthe sky is clearer. It is situated about 60 miles from Los Angeles,overlooking the Mohave Desert. The National Geographic Society,appreciating the value of this work on solar radiation, has furnishedme with a sum of money to maintain for several years still anotherstation in southwest Africa. That is not at all at the expense of theGovernment but at the cost of the National Geographic Society.We, however, are in charge of the station, and the observers there arecooperating with ours to make the most accurate measurements ofthe sun's variation.Mr. Summers. About what does it cost to maintain each station?Doctor Abbot. The appropriation here, sir, is $32,000 for last year,and with that we have maintained the station in California and thestation in South America, and the central station in Washington,which coordinates the results. So that I may say $10,000 a year orthereabouts is sufficient to maintain one of these stations in thewilderness. Of course the difficulty in that matter is that youngmen do not like to stay long in an absolute wilderness, miles andmiles away from their nearest neighbors, having to bring water for10 or 12 miles, and without any of the comforts of civilization. Noteven an insect or birds or any creeping thing of any sort of life existsat the station in Chile. So the difficulty is to get new qualified per-sons every two or three years to conduct the work there, and ouranxiety is to keep the work going.Mr. Wood. You ought to be able to draw your force from thoseseeking solitude.Doctor Abbot. It is a curious thing, sir, that after they have beenout there for a while they get to like the desert conditions. But theisolation wears upon them so that after three years we have to replacethem. ADDITIONAL ASSISTANT SECRETARYMr. Wood. The next item is for the salary of Doctor Wetmore : For an additional assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, $7,500,during the present incumbency : and in the event of a change in incumbencythe salary of such position! shall be in accordance with the provisions of theclassification act of 1923 and section 2 of this act.Doctor Abbot. That is the same as last year, sir, and I think hevery well deserves it. NATIONAL MUSEUM cases, FriiXiTur.r., fixtTjreSj ami appliancesMr. Wood. Next is the National Museum:For eases; furniture, fixtures, and appliance required for Hi ? exhibition andsafe-keeping of collections, including necessary employees, $29,500, of whichaaxownj no< to exceed sKi.oon m;i.v be expended for personal services in theDistrict of Columbia.Doctor Abbot. Doetoi! Wetmore will speak for the National Mu-seum, sir.Doctor Wetmore. The appropriation for furniture and fixifor L929 carries an estimate of $29,500. There is appropriated for 362 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 19291928?the current year?$20,500. The increase of $3,000 is estimatedto provide for additional storage space for our collections. Ourpresent funds are insufficient as when we asked this present year forestimates from the curators for needed storage for new collectionsthat had come into their care we received a total figure $8,000 greaterthan the appropriation. During the past year the total number ofspecimens received was 402.531?approximately 150,000 more thancame to us the previous year. This great increase of material mustbe placed carefully in proper containers in order to preserve it.The increase of $3,000 is allotted as follows: $1,000 under suppliesand materials to provide for lumber and similar materials for makingadditional cases and $2,000 under scientific equipment to permit thepurchase of glass jars and vials, pasteboard boxes and trays, insectdrawers, and similar needed containers.The great increase in the collection this vear has come from a num-ber of sources. We have had the material, for example, from theStirling expedition to New Guinea, which by means of one of themain rivers penetrated central New Guinea and came finally to theland of the pigmies in the mountains of the interior. Mr. Stirlingfound the pigmy people living under the culture conditions of theStone Age; their implements were of stone, such as the small stonehatchet shown here. We have other stone axes much larger that wereused for cutting trees, hewing out canoes, and similar work. Theimplement I now show you is a stone knife and was used for skinninganimals and other cutting. These people, at the time of the comingof Mr. Stirling, had no steel. He could obtain almost anything fromthem he desired for the exchange of a small knife, bit of steel, oriron of any kind. The pigmies know some of the good things oflife, though, as they use tobacco which they twist on a stick in orderto carry it conveniently: it is smoked in a pipe. They ornamentthemselves in various ways. Here is a necklace made of the feathersof a cassowary.Mr. Wood. Is that a bird ?Doctor Wetmore. Yes, a species half as large as an ostrich. Andhere is a lady's skirt. [Laughter.]Mr. Wood. They are right up with our people so far as short skirtsare concerned, aren't they?Doctor Wetmore. It would appear they are a little bit ahead ofthem.Mr. Summers. What country is that ?Doctor Wetmore. That is in the interior of Dutch Xew Guinea. Ihave brought these few specimens to give you some idea of the inter-esting and valuable things that we receive. Fourteen cases of thistype of material came into the museum this last year as a gift fromMr. Stirling?one of the most wonderful collections from NewGuinea that has ever been brought out?hundreds and hundreds ofspecimens.Mr. Wood. This $3,000. you say, is for the purpose of providingcases to take care of new exhibits?Doctor Wetmore. Of these and similar things, important collec-tions have been received in all our departments. The increase ofspecimens on our catalogues this last year amounted to more than402,000 separate items, all very valuable things to our collections. APPR0PKL4.TI0NS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 363We are under the necessity of providing adequate housing to preservethem where they can be kept for study and investigation.Mr. Wood. There is no addition in the personal services at all?Doctor Wetmore. The personal services, as shown here in the esti-mates, remains the same as last year. In the memorandum Mr.Moore presented, there is a recommendation of an increase or step-upof $60 for one man.Mr. Wood. And that would be additional to the $13,000 ?Doctor Wetmore. This would make the salary limitation $13,060-and the total appropriation would be $29,560.HEATING, LIGHTING, ETC.Mr. Wood. The next item is : For heating, lighting, electrical, telegraphic, and telephonic service, andtraveling expenses, $83,340, of which amount not to exceed $49,840 may beexpended for personal services in the District of Columbia.You are asking for $83,340, which represents an increase of $4,000?ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEESDoctor Wetmore. That increase amounts to $3,840. This entireamount is allotted on the salary roll to provide three additional em-ployees. At the present time, the heating and lighting plant locatedin the. Natural History Building provides heat and light for the fivebuildings in which the exhibits of the National Museum are shownor stored.Our present salary roll carries three engineers, one for each of the.three 8-hour shifts of the day. This makes no definite provisionfor annual leave or sick leave. As a matter of fact, we require themen to take their annual leave during the summer, when the plantis shut down and we are buying electricity from one of the localcompanies. When we are under the necessity of getting additionalassistants for temporary employees, we have that need during thewinter season when engineers are very much in demand and it isextremely difficult to get them at the salary we must pay, especiallywith the current ruling of the comptroller that a temporary employeeis entitled to no annual leave. On the average, when we succeed ingetting a temporary engineer, he stays less than two months. Thepresent situation is such that these men are on duty Sundays andall other holidays and, at the most, we can allow them only two daysoff a month to recompense them for extra duty.Mr. Wood. Is the purpose of this increase to hire three additionalmen '.Doctor Wetmore. One additional engineer, and (lien an additionalfireman, on the same basis. We have now four firemen on the regu-lar staff and, during the coldest weather in the winter, we employtwo others. This also takes care of only the regular 8-hour shifts.The present number is inadequate for our needs.Mr. Wood. You show an addition here of three : What is the otherone?Doctor Wetmore. The other one is an elevator conductor. Wehave now, in the Natural History Building four passenger elevators 364 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929and two freight elevators. We have three men to operate these sixelevators. This is effected by keeping two passenger elevators run-ning during the day. and using the third man as a relied' for the twomen on constant duty: in the intervals between, this man operatesone of the freight elevators. The passenger elevators are operatedon Sundays ami holidays so that under the present situation we cangive each one of these three men only 14 days a year to recompensehim for his Sunday and holiday services. During the summer time,we put on an additional man for four months to allow them theirannual leave. The present situation, however, is not lair to the menand does not give adequate service to the public. We need anotherelevator conductor very much, indeed.Mr. Wood. If this amount Mr. Moore and Mr. Xewton asked foris allowed, would there be any portion of it to apply to this item?Doctor Wetmoke. There will be an increase of S700. The totalappropriation would then amount to $84,040, and the salary limita-tion would be increased to $50,540.CONTINUING PRESERVATION, ETC., OF COLLECTIONSMr. Wood. The next item is as follows : For continuing preservation, exhibition, and increase of collections from thesurveying and exploring expeditions of the Government, and from othersources, including necessary employees, travel, and all other necessary ex-penses and not exceeding $5,500 for preparation of manuscripts, drawings,and illustrations for publications, $483,110. of which amount not to exceed$464,GN0 may be expended for personal services in the District of Columbia.That shows an increase of $10,000.SALARY IXCREASi>Doctor Wetmore. The total increase is * (.).C>(>(>. Of this, practicallyall is contemplated for the salary roll. At the present time I havein force on this roll reallocations in salaries made by the PersonnelClassification Board, mainly on appeal by employees, amounting to$4,900, covering cases submitted by 21 persons. That is effectivenow, and is included in the estimates for the appropriation for nextyear, as it will also be in effect at that time.Mr. Wood. You are only increasing the number of your employeesby one?Doctor Wetmore. That is all, sir.Mr. Wood. These increases, amounting to $9,000 plus, is just astep-up in all of the grades, or a portion of them?Doctor W^etmore. That is not a step-up at all: $4,900 is due to areallocation on the part of the Personnel Classification Board. Cer-tain employees who have felt that they had been improperly classifiedmade appeals to this board: they have had their appeals recognizedand their salaries have been increased accordingly: these reallocationsare now in effect. I have to carry them by a retrenchment in theexisting salary roll.Mr. Wood. That is due entirely to the result of the action of thereclassification board IDoctor Wetmore. $4,900 of it : yes, sir. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 365ADDITIONAL ASSISTANT CURATORMr. Wood. To what is the other attributable?Doctor Wetmoee. There is included also provision for an addi-tional assistant curator in the division of mammals.Mr. Wood. How much for that ?Doctor Wetmore. $3,000. That is for the salary of one man inthe division of mammals, which carries one of the largest collectionsin the National Museum. It is the largest collection of its kind inthis country and second largest in the world. At the present timeit is administered by one curator, one man only on the scientificstaff. The work is such that this man should have an assistant, notonly to assist him in his routine and scientific work, but also to bein training so that he will be prepared to take over the work of thedivision when this older man has to move on.Mr. Wood. How old is the older man ?Doctor Wetmore. About 60.Mr. Wood. And the younger man?Doctor Wetmore. The younger man is in prospect; he is not onthe roll and can not be until next year. Such a man, I might say,can not be obtained as we employ stenographers, clerks, or other as-sistants. Such men are of peculiar training, and there are only acomparatively few in this country at any one time.Mr. Wood. That accounts for $7,900 of the increase. What ac-counts for the rest?INCREASE IN CHAR FORCE?UNIFORMS FOR GUARDS AND ELEVATORCONDUCTORSDoctor Wetmore. An item of $431 is due to a readjustment on ourchar force?our cleaning force. We had a man who had been onour staff for 40 years or more, a man of peculiar capability, who didmost of the repair work on our many curtains and awnings and simi-lar things, and also spent Sy2 hours each evening in supervisingthe work of the charwomen. On his death last spring we found itimpracticable to get another with his peculiar qualifications. Wesecured a mechanic to carry on the entire work of curtain and awn-ing repair and certain other things the former man had been doing,but found it necessary to use one of the charwomen as a forewomanduring the work of cleaning the buildings in the evening. This, withfurther necessity for some additional char service in the rest rooms,has made an increase of $431.The remainder of the increase of $9,600 in this appropriation isincluded in an item of $1,200 to provide uniforms for our guards andelevator conductors and of $69 added to the amount allowed for pur-chase of additional supplies. Our guards should be in uniform forthe information and protection of visitors, who can not now distin-guish them easily from other persons in our halls. The salaries ofthese men are so low that we can not require them to purchase uni-forms from their own resources.In the memorandum submitted by Mr. Moore and Mr. Newtonthere is provision for a salary step-up in this same appropriation.Mr. Wood. Plow much? 366 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, Hl2UDoctor "Wetmore. $19,436.66?making the total appropriation$502,546.66 and the salary limitation $484,116.66. I may say thatthe step-up given last year on this appropriation, which is the largestone for the National Museum, has had a most excellent effect inimproving the morale of the staff. Our employees had been goingalong since 1924 with no change in salary until this increase wentinto effect on July 1 last. The promotions given have changed en-tirely the attitude of this group of employees toward their work. Ithas operated to speed up work considerably and has made possible theaccomplishment of a great deal more with the available force. Theeffect was noticeable almost immediately in the amount accomplished.REPAIRS OF BUILDINGS. SHOPS, ETC.Mr. Wood. The next item : For repairs of buildings, simps, and sheds, including all necessary labor andmaterial, $17,610, of which amount not to exceed $10360 may be exi>ended forpersonal services in the District of Columbia.There is an increase of four thousand dollars and odd.Doctor Wetmore. This carries an increase of $4,610. Of thatamount there is $1,680 estimated to allow for the hire of an additionalpainter. We now have one painter on this force, which has the careof repairs and renovation of all our buildings. In explaining thismatter to the Bureau of the Budget I brought to their attention thefact that unless provision was made for further painting it would benecessary to come forward, in a comparatively short time, for alarge special appropriation to cover the refinishing of our walls. TheNatural History Building, which was completed in 1911. has had onlya minor part of the Avails repainted since that time. The other build-ings, which are older, are in worse condition. We believe that byputting on another painter and having two men to work on that taskwe can get along fairly well for a period of several years at least.Mr. "Wood. You need this additional painter all the time?Doctor Wetmore. Yes; we do. The work is such that the presentforce can not keep up with it.Mr. Wood. What makes up the other item of this increase?Doctor Wetmore. There is an item of $980 for additional paintsand other materials and an additional item of $2,000 to replace partsof the cement roadways leading around the Natural History Build-ing. These roadways are private and are under our maintenance.Last year there was allowed $1,000, with which part of this work wasdone. I have here a diagram of the ground floor of this building, onwhich I have sketched the roadway on the east which leads to theservice entrance where we receive coal and take out ashes: this is themost important roadway we have. In 1925 we replaced a section ofthis cement at a cost of $1,345. This year I had a thousand dollarsallotted for that purpose, with which we have replaced a portion 93feet in length. What we contemplate doing with the additionalfunds estimated is to continue this work as far as possible towardthe east entrance.Doctor Wetmore. Our salary Step up as indicated by Mr. Mooreon this appropriation is estimated to amount to $12<>, which wouldmake the total appropriation $17,730, and the salary limitation$10,480. APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929 367PURCHASE OF BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, PERIODICALS, ETC.Mr. Wood. Now we come to the item : For purchase of books, pamphlets, and periodicals for reference, $2,000.You ask for $500 additional there.Doctor Wetmore. By examining the appropriations for previousyears, you will notice that up to 1925 this item carried $2,000. For1926 it was reduced to $1,500 and has stood at that amount since.The cost of printing has increased tremendously; the cost of books,,scientific books particularly, has gone up correspondingly. The sumof $1,500 is all we now have available for the purchase of scientificworks for the library of the National Museum for all the variedwork that the curators carry on. We get a great many books andpamphlets through exchange for our own publications; but thereare certain ones we must buy. The increase of $500 will be appliedto those purchases wholly necessary for our work.POSTAGE STAMPSMr. Wood. Next item is for the purchase of postage stamps andforeign postal cards, $450. That remains the same?Doctor Wetmore. No change.NATIONAL GALLERY OF ARTMr. Wood. Now we come to the National Gallery of Art : For the administration of the National Gallery of Art by the SmithsonianInstitution, including compensation of necessary employees, purchase of booksof reference and periodicals, traveling expenses, and necessary incidental ex-penses, ?30,356, of which amount not. to exceed $27,000 may be expended for per-sonal services in the District of Columbia.Doctor Abbot. Mr. Chairman, they are asking the same as includedin the Budget?the same as last year.Mr. Wood. Would there be any step up in that ?Mr. Dorset. Eight hundred and twelve dollars, sir, step up onthat, making the total appropriation $31,168 and the salary limita-tion $27,812.Doctor Abbot. Not this year, Mr. Chairman; but, perhaps, nextyear we shall ask for another small item, which is rather interesting.I think, if you will permit me, I will tell about it. A gentleman bythe name of Ranger died some years ago and left to the NationalAcademy of Design, in New York, his fortune for the purchase ofart works, to be assigned by the national academy to public artgalleries in different quarters of the country. Some of them havecome here. The provision is that at any time between 10 and 15years after the death of the artist, the National Gallery could recallany particular painting of those Ranger paintings which it desired,no matter where it was?wherever it might be, Boston, San Fran-cisco, or the like?for the National Gallery. There have been 66of those Banger paintings obtained; and of those, three are in theNational Gallery, assigned by this committee I speak of. It is hoped81202?28 24 368 APPROPRIATIONS, INDEPENDENT OFFICES, 1929by the committee on the gallery to bring all of those 66 Rangerpaintings together in a year or two, compare them, and see whichof them the National Gallery will eventually wish to procure. Itcosts something like sl,()OO.for the transportation, taking out insur-ance, and the like, so that it is likely in another year we shall askan appropriation of a thousand dollars for that purpose?not forthis year.Mr. Wood. You are just giving us forewarn i n g (Doctor Abbot. Yes, sir. I think it is a very remarkable will andvery interesting. PRINTING AND BINDINGMr. "Wood. The next item reads as follows : For all printing and binding for the Smithsonian Institution, including all ofits bureaus, offices, institutions, and services located in Washington, D. C, andelsewhere. .$90,000. of which not to exceed $7,000 shall be available for primingthe report of the American Historical Association: Provided. That the expendi-ture of this sum shall not be restricted to a pro rata amount in any period ofthe fiscal year.Doctor Abbot. In that, as has been suggested b\ Mr, Moore andMr. Xewton, we are asking $100,000 instead of $90,000, which wasallowed by the Budget and for the purpose of bringing up the publi-cations of the Bureau of Ethnology and the National Museum asstated.Mr. Wood. If that is allowed, that entire amount will be used forthe purposes designated by these gentlemen and by yourself, forprinting and binding alone?Doctor Abbot. Yes, sir.Mr. Wood. And bringing up your publications current?Doctor Abbot. Yes, sir.Mr. Wood. And this will do it, too, will it?Doctor Abbot. It will help very materially toward that end, sir.Mr. Wood. That seems to me the end of the Smithsonian Institu-tion, so far as Ave are concerned for the present. We are very muchobliged to you for the very interesting hearing. Monday, December 12, 1927.UNITED STATES VETERANS' BUREAUSTATEMENTS OF GEN. FRANK T. HINES, DIRECTOR. AND S. M.M00RE, JR., ETJDGET OFFICERESTIMATES FOR 1929Mr. Wood. This morning we take up the estimates for the Vet-erans1 Bureau. General, have you any statement that you want togive us before we take up the items in the bill?General Hixes. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee.I have turned over to the clerk a folder similar to the one that I havebefore me, which I have prepared for the committee. It has all ofthe tables to which I will make reference as I go alon