14 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



the regular officers of the Institution occupied with exchange business, 

 and the sum appropriated by Congress would be entirely inadequate 

 were it not that the chief ocean steamship companies have, since the 

 early days of the Institution, granted the privilege of free freight for 

 its exchange boxes. I have repeatedly called attention to the impro- 

 priety of further trespassing upon the generosity of these companies, 

 the privilege having been originally intended as a direct encouragement 

 of the philanthropic aims of the Institution, whereas now a very large 

 proportion of the freight thus carried is Government property and the 

 service is conducted under an international treaty. 



I may further call attention in this place to the fact that an additional 

 treaty made at Brussels in 1886 and proclaimed by the President of the 

 United States on January 15, 1889, wherein lU'ovision is made for the 

 immediate exchange of ofticial journals, parliamentary annals and docu- 

 ments, has never been executed. A bill making an appropriation of 

 $2,000 for this purpose passed the Senate in 1891, but no final action 

 thereon has been taken. 



The amount estimated for the conduct of the exchange service for 

 the year 1892-'93 was $23,000, a sum which was expected to cover the 

 X)reseut expense of the Exchange Bureau in a single item, including the 

 $2,000 just mentioned. At the close of the fiscal year the Sundry Civil 

 Appropriation bill, of which this was an item, had not become a law. 



I desire to mention again here the increasing difficulty of making 

 provision for the storage of Government publications not needed for 

 immediate transmission abroad. A iiortion of the building is now de- 

 voted to this imrpose which is needed more and more each year for the 

 more legitimate purposes of the Institution. 



The exchange offices are also needed for the growing reference library 

 of scientific books belonging to the Institution, and with a view to re- 

 lieving the overcrowded condition of the library by removing these 

 offices to the basement, 1 have urged upon Congress the desirability of 

 making available for the purpose, the balance of an appropriation orig- 

 inally intended for repairs and alterations to the western part of the 

 building, which, by reason of a restricting clause in the appropriation 

 act, can not be used for the work first x)roposed. By the expenditure 

 of about $10,000 the basement of the east wing, now damp and some- 

 times flooded with water, can be made thoroughly healthy and weU 

 adapted to the needs of the exchange Avork. 



In my report for 1890 I stated that there had been expended from the 

 Smithsonian fund for the support of the international exchange sys- 

 tem, in the interests and by the authority of the National Government, 

 $38,141.01 in excess of appropriations, advanced from January 1, 1868, 

 to June 30, 1886, for the exchange of official Government documents, 

 and $7,031.81 in excess of appropriations from July 1, 1886, to June 30, 

 1889, advanced for the purpose of carrying out a convention entered 

 into by the United States, or an aggregate of $45,175.82. 



