REPORT OF ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 79 



Tlie ollices of superiuteiideut and assistant superintendent of build- 

 ings and labor were abolished October 19, 180(5, and the division of 

 buildings and superintendence created. Mr. J. E. Watkins was desig- 

 nated chief of the division, with instructions to report directly to the 

 executive curator. 



The membership of standing committees at the beginning of the 

 present fiscal year was as follows : Ou insjiection, Mr. Lucas (chairman), 

 Messrs. Goldsmith and Tlawley; on condemnation, Mr. Brown (chair- 

 man), ]\Iessrs. Goldsmith and iStenart; ou lumber, JNIr. Horan (chairman) 

 and Mr. Goldsmith, with W. H. Haney as advisory member. On July 8 

 Mr. Tassin was designated a member of the committee on insj)ection 

 to replace, temporarily, Mr. Lucas, detailed for duty in Alaska. The 

 committee on lumber has been reduced to Messrs. Goldsmith and 

 W. II. Ilaney. 



Special committees were appointed during the year, as follows: Pro- 

 fessor Mason and Messrs. Schuchert, Xewhall, Watkins and lirown, 

 to examine Museum material in storage at the Armory Ijuilding, with 

 a view to condemning any objects no longer serviceable; Messrs. Gold- 

 smith, ►Steuart, Schucnnann, Berry, ^NFcDevitt, and Baker, to o])en bids 

 for furnishing supplies during the current fiscal year and to recom- 

 mend awards ; Messrs. Goldsmith, Bean, Berry, Schuermann, McDevitt, 

 and liakcr, to open and examine proposals for furnishing su])])lies dur- 

 ing the coming year; Messrs. Tassin, Kichmond, and Bean, to examine, 

 with a view to condemnation or other disposition, certain books and 

 labels in the editor's office. 



The various bureaus of the Smithsonian Institution having been 

 made subject to the civil-service law by order of the President, a clas- 

 sification of the employees was transmitted to the Civil Service Com- 

 mission on July .), 1800, together with a tabulated statement of the 

 number of employees in each class. 



The civil-service rules require that the head of each department or 

 bureau of the Government shall nominate not less than three persons 

 who shall be members of a board of promotion, and in accordance 

 with this regulation the following officers were nominated as members 

 of the Smithsonian board : Mr. W. V. Cox, chairman. Prof. O. T. Mason, 

 and Dr. Frank Baker. On June 8, 1807, ^Mr. J. L. Willige, acting chief 

 clerk, was instructed to act as chairman of the board during the 

 absence of Mr. Cox on duties connected with the Tennessee Centennial 

 I">xi>osition. By direction of the Secretary, the chief clerk of the 

 Museunj will be chairman e.r o[lici<f. Ail correspondence l)etween the 

 Commission and the Institution relating to the Museum or to the other 

 Bureaus of the Institution will be conducted through the ollice of the 

 Secretary by the (;hief clerk of the Museum. 



The Assistant Secretary of Agriculture invited the cooi)eration of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in establishing a uniform standard of require- 

 ments for scientific assistants in the several bureaus of the Government, 



