110 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



delay may become coasiderable, aa, for instance, in the case of steamers from Naples, 

 which Lave been hard pressed for space on account of the use of some of them as 

 transports in the military operations of the Italian Government in Africa last year, 

 when boxes shipped by the exchange office at Rome on December 1, 1887, were re- 

 ceived in Washington ou the 9th of April, 1888, having been detained meanwhile at 

 Naples in the warehouses of the steam-ship company. At this writing boxes the 

 shipment of which from Rome was announced more than four months ago have not 

 yet been received. Delays of this sort are also beyond the control of the Smithson- 

 ian Institution, and will be likely to recur so long as the Institution continues to be 

 unable to pay for its freight in the same way as other shippers. 



With a view to doing away with this last-named cause of delay and to establishing 

 the transportation service of the international exchanges ujion an assured business 

 basis an estimate of the probable annual cost of the service was drawn up last May, 

 based upon the usual ocean steam-ship charges and the average amount of freight 

 which may be expected to be forwarded yearly to each country. The sum estimated 

 was $27,050, which you presented to Congress as an amended estimate, through the 

 honorable Secre tary of the Treasury, on the Slst of May last, but which has not yet 

 been acted upon. 



So far as my own observations extend, and, as I have every reason to believe, for a 

 considerable time previous to uiy appointment, no avoidable delay has occurred 

 either in the Smithsonian exchange bureau or in the offices of its paid agents at Lon- 

 don and Leipzig. The quantity and frequency of shipments to and receipts from the 

 different countries concerned in the international exchanges are set forth as Exhibit 

 F, presented herewith. 



But few changes in the routine have been made during the year. Since last March 

 a printed card has been placed in each outgoing package, stating the date of its 

 shipment from the Smithsonian Institution, and requesting that any unusual delay 

 in its receipt be promptly reported. On the 1st of June the shipping office was sep- 

 ariited from the receiving office with the result of a considerable economy of time and 

 labor. Two circulars have been issued during the year ; one on March 2, requesting 

 the bureaus of the National Government to correct and complete their list of publi- 

 cations prepared in response to a circular issued in the previous year, and described 

 in the annual report upon international exchanges for the year ending June 30, 1887; 

 the other on May 31, requesting au exiiression of opinion from all the bureaus and 

 offices of the National Government, as to the advantage to their business of increased 

 speed in trausmittingtheir publications. Both (;irculars were very generally answered 

 and have been the means of iirocuring valuable information for use in the future. 



I take pleasure in being able to bear witness to the faithfulness and efficiency of 

 the employes in the exchange office. Although the greater part of them receive a 

 less compensation than employes in other offices of the Government, and the duties 

 which they perform are both laborious and responsible, the business of the office has 

 not at any time been in arrears, nor has any employ^ incurred censure for misconduct 

 or neglect. The foreign agencies of the exchange service, conducted by Messrs. Will- 

 iam Wesley &. Son at London and by Dr. Felix Fliigel at Leipzig, are also in every 

 way satisfactory as regards promptness and efficiency. 



