XVIII JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



three items: For buildiugs, improvements, and maintenance. While 

 all were insufficient, that for maintenance (which was essentially for 

 the care and food of living animals) was peculiarly inade<iuate, since it 

 left him unable to care for creatures who could not care for themselves, 

 and ought not to be allowed to suffer. This item, then, was notably 

 different in kind from those providing for buildings or roads, which 

 might be left incomi)lete with less immediate damage or only i^ecuniary 

 loss. 



Senator Morrill expressed his regret at the deplorable insufficiency 

 of the appropriations for the park, and at the necessity of contemplating 

 the sundering of the park from the Institution, but he was of the opin- 

 ion that such a separation would become desirable unless some change 

 was made. He thought it out of the question that the matter should 

 continue on ihe present footing, and the Smithsonian ought not again 

 to be put under the necessity of caring for any part of the park out of 

 its private funds, even temporarily and indirectly. 



Further renuirks were made by Mr. Breckinridge and Mr. Wheeler. 



With reference to the administration of the Institution, the Secretary 

 recalled that the Assistant Secretary has, as such, no power to act in 

 the Secretary's place, such as the Assistant Secretary in any Exe(;u- 

 tive Department possesses, and that he can not even execute such 

 routine signatures of necessary vouchers and like papers as in Executive 

 Departments the law authorizes, not only him, but his subordinates 

 to do. 



Ajiart from the imi)ortant administrative duties assigned to the 

 Secretary, ther(^ i)resent themselves daily a great many vouchers and 

 like routine papers for the Treasury from the different bureaus under 

 his charge — papers v.iiich, as has just been stated, would in every 

 bureau of any Execati\'e Department of tlu^ Government be signed by 

 a snbordinate oflicer; wliile here the Secretary- or Acting Secretary 

 nuist i)ersoual]y sign such routine money papers, under a custom which 

 has grown step by step from small beginnings to be a hardly tolerable 

 burden in the illness or absence either of the Secretary or of the Act- 

 ing Secretary, while for their joint illness no i)rovision is made what- 

 ever. To meet in part the difficulties arising from the necessity of dele- 

 gating authority for signing vouchers and like Treasury papers, it 

 was stated that by i)roi)er action of the Board of Eegents all re({uire- 

 meuts of the Treasury Department might be met. 



No similar difficulty exists in any Executive Department, because 

 in all such the lav,' provides not only tor the Secretary and Acting- 

 Secretary, but for a line of succession of subordinate officers author- 

 ized to execute such acts as the daily conduct of their respective 

 bureaus rendt'rs necessary. 



The Secretary pointed out that, owing to the established princii)lesof 

 conduct in the Sniithsoniaii Institution (which there was no intention 

 here of departing from), the Secretary's power had never been diffused 



