108 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



of other countries in the national library as an equivalent for some forty copies of their 

 own pul)lications. 



If the clauses proposed by the Paris conference of 1875, and always urged by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, requiring the preparation aud exchange of annual lists of 

 all official publications, and that all of those named in the lists should be furnished 

 to each of the contracting parties, had been retained in the convention of 1886, and if 

 the convention could be faithfully executed, an effective remedy for the shortcomings 

 already indicated might have been found. The opposition of some of the Governments 

 participating in the conferences however (notably France and Switzerland), and 

 the final withdrawal of France and continued indifference of England and Germany, 

 have made this remedy imjjossible. Something lias been done during the past year, 

 by perservering correspondence, aud more may doubtless be effected hereafter in the 

 same way, but the most promising plan yet tried has been the employment of a 

 special agent to visit the European (as the most important) Government offices, and 

 excite there an interest in the subject by personal explanation and argument. Mr. 

 George H. Boehmer, of this office, was employed in this way in 1884, as has been already 

 stated, with the result of much larger receipts than have been shown by any one 

 year before or since. After Mr. Boehmer's return, however, the temporary interest 

 which his mission had excited rapidly weakened. Many sets of publications which 

 had been freely promised him (notably a complete set of the publications of the 

 British Government) have not been sent, mainly because of indifference, and of the 

 considerable labor and time required for preparing the sets for shipment. 



It is not only foreign Governments, however, which show shortcomings in this 

 matter. According to Hickox' monthly catalogue of Government publications, there 

 were issued by the National Government and its bureaus, during the first six months 

 of the year 1888, about eleven hundred separate titles, not considering single laws 

 or articles forming parts of reports as distinct publications. While it is not possi- 

 ble until the volumes of Executive Documents, Miscellaneous Documents, and Re- 

 ports have been finally collected and bound, to state precisely the number of sepa- 

 rate volumes as finally distributed, it is safe to say that the total number for the six 

 months was greatly in excess of the number of titles furnished for official exchanges. 

 Of all the Executive Departments, for example, only the Light-House Board and the 

 Signal Office furnished a part of their publications for this purpose. 



The total number of separate titles furnished by the Public Printer during the six 

 months for which this comparison is drawn was two hundred and ninety-five, includ- 

 ing a considerable number of Army orders, reports of contested-election cases, aud 

 other matter not of a kind most valuable to foreign libraries. Such a comparison as 

 this can, however, only be regarded as illustrative, since the publications furnished 

 by the Public Printer are always at least a year old at the time of distribution. 



The resolution of Congress, passed July 25, 1868, directing that fifty copies of every 

 Government publication and every publication issued under the direction of the Gov- 

 ernment, shall be placed at the disposal of the joint committee of Congress on the Li- 

 brary for the purpose of the international exchanges, is sufficiently mandatory in its 

 provisions, but, as above stated, has never been fully carried out. Efforts have been 

 made from time to time by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution aud the Libra- 

 rian of Congress, w ith the assistance and support of the State Department and of mem- 

 bers of both branches of Congress, which have been set forth at length in the reports 

 on exchanges attached to the Secretary's reports for 1886 and 1887. I am pleased to 

 be able to report that the receipts from the Public Printer during the last six months 

 of the year, far as they fall short of the full and complete distribution contemplated 

 by the law, show a decided increase over the number of titles received and shipped 

 in previous months aud years. The resolution is recited in Exhibit D, hereto ap- 

 pended. 



As I have already said, it is not easy to get data for complete lists of the official 

 publications of foreign countries, since they have not, to my knowledge, been brought 



