16 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



viding for the printing of the Annual Reports so worded as to allow for 

 the printing of future reports without special legislation each year, at 

 the some time increasing the number of copies to 19,000. An act of 

 Congress in the following terms would piobably accomplish all that 

 is desired : 



That there be printed of the Reports of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion and of the National Museum, for the years ending June thirty, 

 eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, and June thirty, eighteen hun- 

 dred and eighty-nine, and annually thereafter, in two octavo volumes 

 for each year, nineteen thousand extra copies, of which three thousand 

 shall be for the use of the Senate, six thousand for the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, and ten thousand for the Smithsonian Institution. 



THE SMITHSONIAN INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE. 



At a meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institutiou 

 on January 8, 1890, it was — 



Resolved, That the Regents instruct the Secretary to ask of Congress 

 legislation for the repayment to the Institution of tlie amount advanced 

 from the Smithsonian fund for Governmental service in carrying on 

 the exchanges. 



In connection with this resolution the following outline of the history 

 of the exchanges is important : 



Under the act of Congress accepting a donation from James Smith- 

 son "for the increase and diffusion of knowedge among men," and 

 giving effect to this trust by the foundation of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, the Board of Regents in 1851 established a system of interna- 

 tional exchanges of the transactions of learned societies and like works ; 

 but, in addition to such publications, it voluntarily transported between 

 1851 and 1867 somewhat over 20,000 packages of publications of the 

 bureaus of the National Government at an estimated cost to the pri- 

 vate funds of the Institution of about $8,000. This, however, was 

 understood to be a voluntary service, and no request for lis re imburse. 

 ment has been made or is contemplated. 



Congress, however, in 1807, by its act of March 2, imposed upon the 

 Institution the duty of exchanging fifty copies of all documents printed 

 by order of either House of Congress, or by the United States Govern- 

 ment bureaus, for similar works published in foreign countries, and 

 especially by foreign Governments. 



The Institution possessed special fticilities and experience for such 

 work, the propriety of its undertaking which, in the interests of the 

 Government, is evident; but it was hardly to have been anticipated 

 that the Government should direct this purely administrative service 

 and make no appropriation for its support. Such, however, was the 

 case, and with the exception of a small (presently to be noted) sum, 

 returned by some bureaus, it was almost entirely maintained during 

 the next thirteen years, or until the first appropriation to the Institu- 

 tion for exchanges in 1881, at the expense of the private fund of James 

 Smithson. 



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