28 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



to have beeu anticipated that tlie Institution sliould conduct a purely 

 administrative work for the General Government out of its private 

 funds, as it appears to have done for thirteen years from 1868 to 1881, 

 when the first appropriation of $3,000 was made by Congress.* If we 

 look back to the commencement of the Government system we find that 

 up to 1880, inclusive, the Smithsonian had paid $92,386.29 for exchanges, 

 of which it is estimated that more than two-thirds were on Government 

 account, for which the Government paid nothing whatever. Subse- 

 quently to 1880, as the foot-note more exactly shows, tbe service has cost 

 $96,005.85, for which the Government has paid $57,500, leaving nearly 

 $30,000 of the cost to be borne by the Smithsonian Institution, and this 

 exclusive of the rent of the rooms, which represents about $3,000 a 

 year more. 



All exchanges are now conducted by Government, but here "Govern- 

 mental" signifies all publications received from or for any bureau or office 

 of this or any Government, and "Miscellaneous" all others.! 



It would appear that there is no doubt that in the intent of Congress, 

 as expressed in the act of 1881, these appropriations should now be ap- 

 plied indifterently to all exchanges, whether to those which it under- 

 takes for the Congressional publications, for those of governmental 

 bureaus, or for other literary and scientific objects ; but the amount as- 



* Proportion of the amount and cost of foreign exchanges for the years 1831 io 1887-'88. 



t Under tlie classification wliicli has prevailed heretofore tbe publications passing 

 through the exchange office have been divided into "official" and "literary and 

 scientific," meaning by the former designation only the publications furnished by 

 the Public Printer for distribution among the national libraries of the Governments 

 participating in the international exchanges, and including in the latter all of the 

 publications sent or received by the bureaus of this Government in direct ex- 

 change with the bureaus of others, and for the benefit of the bureau libraries. The 

 classification appears to be misleading, since this latter subdivision of the exchanges 

 is(iiiite as strictly official, or for the service of the Government, as the former. I 

 have therefore directed that hereafter all publications issued or received by the Gov- 

 ernment, whether by legislative, .judicial, or Executive authority, shall be desig- 

 nated as "Government.al," and all others as "Miscellaneous." 



