108 ANiJUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



funds as maintenance of the several regional bureaus was then, as 

 now, provided for, in most cases, by direct governmental grants. 

 However, the additional funds needed to meet the increased cost of 

 printing and publishing, under war conditions, had to be met by 

 the subscribers and these increases when expressed in the depreciated 

 currency of many countries, resulted in impossible figures; conse- 

 quently, publication had to be suspended. 



When operations began in 1901, the price to subscribers of a 

 complete set of the 17 annual volumes of the catalogue, com- 

 prising about 10,000 pages, was £17, the pound sterling being then 

 at par. The American subscription price was, after adding ship- 

 ping costs, $85. The income derived from subscriptions and the 

 expenditures of the London Central Bureau, in charge of printing 

 and publishing, approximately balanced in 1914, wdien war began. 

 Since that time publishing costs, in England, have doubled and 

 the value of the French franc has sunk to less than one-fourth, 

 and the Italian lira to less than one-fifth of their respective par 

 values. Without tabulation, it is obvious that a cost easily borne 

 in these countries in 1901 has become impossible in 1925. It was 

 never the intention for the International Catalogue to be a com- 

 mercial enterprise, but rather the means of furnishing, at cost, to 

 investigators and students data needed to keep them informed of the 

 scientific progress of the world. Experience proves that inter- 

 national cooperation is the only means whereby the necessary data 

 can be collected and prepared for such an index, but it is now 

 apparent that some new source of revenue must be provided to print 

 this data before publication can be resumed. 



Could a sufficient endowment be obtained, the organization would 

 again become self-supporting, as there is now a greater demand 

 for the catalogue than ever before and a central bureau provided 

 with its own publishing plant, or capital sufficient to make advan- 

 tageous long-term contracts with properly equipped publishing 

 houses, would be enabled to offset the increased cost of publication 

 by the saving of the interest and other charges, which were neces- 

 sary in 1901 to an organization doing business without capital. If 

 it were possible to secure such an endowment in the United States, 

 now the only country not unduly oppressed by the results of war, 

 American students and investigators would be much benefited for, 

 notwithstanding impoverished conditions, much advanced and valu- 

 able scientific work is being done abroad with which it is difficult 

 to keep in touch without the annual volumes of the International 

 Catalogue. 



Respectfully submitted. Leonard C. Gunnell, 



Assistant in Charge. 



Dr. Charles D, Walcott, 



Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 



