30 REPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 



pay for rapid transit on land or sea, and that for what it obtains on the 

 latter it is dependent npou the courtesy of several ocean steam-ship 

 companies, with the natural result that the free freight is often delayed 

 to make room for that which is paid for.* A subordinate cause, how- 

 ever, lies iu the apathy or indifference, or possible insufficient clerical 

 force, of most of the foreign -exchange bureaus. 



In a recent test case parcels shipped on the same day to London, 

 Leipzig, and Paris, with letters requesting immediate notification of 

 receipt, were acknowledged by the agents of the Institution at London 

 on the fourteenth day, at Leipzig on the hfteenth, and by the Bureau 

 des ^changes at Paris on the fortieth day. 



In the hope of insuring a regular and certain ocean-steamer service, 

 I requested, on the 30th of May last, through the honorable Secretary 

 of the Treasury, an increase in the appropriation for the fiscal year 

 1888-'89 to $27,050, based upon a careful consideration of the cost of 

 "fast freight" at the ordinary commercial rates and upon the quantity 

 of material which past experience has made probable. 



The following brief statement wil give the essential facts on which 

 the application was based. 



It should be premised that only about one-third of the Government's 

 publications are actually received from the office of the Publjc Printer 

 and elsewhere, for transmission abroad, and that while special appli- 

 cation on our part might call out the remainder, we can not under- 

 take to do this while only partly paid the actual outlay for the portion 

 we carry already, while a sufficient appropriation to justify the employ- 

 ment of a special exchange agent in Europe, as has been frequently and 

 earnestly recommended by the Librarian of Congress, would bring back 

 in return probably about eight times what we now receive. Accord- 

 ingly, in the subjoined estimate of what should be done, if Congress 

 paid the actual cost of efficient service (the services of the officers of 

 this Institution being given without charge), more packages appear 

 under the new plan than under the old. 



*A shipment sent from Rome in December, 1887, for example, lay at Naples until 

 tlie latter part of March, 1888, before the steam-ship company forwarded it. 



