REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 63 



EFFICIENCY OF THE SERVICE. 



I ngret to report that, througli circumstances over which the personnel of the 

 Exchange Office could have no control, it was found impracticable to pi"event the 

 work of the year from falling in arrears. 



The appropriation for the fiscal year was $2,500 less than for the j^ears immediately 

 preceding, and during the latter half of the year, no deficiency appropriation hav- 

 ing been passed by Congress it became necessary to curtail the expenses in every 

 possible way by reducing the number of employees and otherwise in order that the 

 regular appropriation might not be exceeded. 



A further embarrassment arose from the fact already stated that some of the Gov- 

 ernment bureaus, ordinarily sending a very considerable number of documents 

 abroad through the Smithsonian Institution, were unable to reimburse the Institu- 

 tion, as in previous years, for the cost of transportation advanced to meet the 

 expense involved. 



In several instances, therefore, it became necessary to advise con-espondeuts that 

 it would be impossible to receive and transmit their publications until after the 

 close of the fiscal year, and, as freight charges could not be met, a very large number 

 of documents, constituting the miscellaneous exchanges, as well as some 7,000 Con- 

 gressional documents to be transmitted to parliamentary libraries with which the 

 exchange for the Library of Congress is conducted, had to be held over until after 

 the new appropriation became available. 



The exchange relations with Greece are in the same condition as a year ago, when, 

 on account of the expenses attending the distril)utiou of packages, the transmission 

 of miscellaneous exchanges was discontinued by request of the librarian of the 

 United National and University Libraries, formerly acting as the medium for dis- 

 tributing publications. 



The transmissions to Brazil and Chile, which were for a time suspended, were 

 renewed, but the exchange with Mexico is still in an extremely unsatisfactory con- 

 dition, and the transmission of the parliamentary documents to the Mexican Gov- 

 ernment has been suspended awaiting some action by the Mexican authorities, to 

 whose attention the matter was brought through the Mexican minister. 



The difficulties attending the transmission of documents to India has been finally 

 met by the action of the Secretary to the Government of India, at Calcutta, in 

 obtaining the consent of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India to continue the 

 former arrangement under which publications intended by the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion for private institutions and individuals, as well as for Government depart- 

 ments and individuals in their official capacity, were forwarded to India from 

 Loudon by the director-general of stores, at the cost of the civil department. 



I take much pleasure in bearing witness to the efficiency of the employees in the 

 Exchange Office and in expressing api)reciation of their efi'orts to keep up with the 

 added volume of work in spite of the unavoidable reduction in the force, and I beg 

 leave to call to your notice the careful attention to the interests of the Insitntion on 

 the part of its special agents abroad. Dr. Felix Fliigel, in Leipsic, and Messrs. 

 William Wesley & Son, in London. 



The Smithsonian Institution is also under special obligation to the Secretary of 

 the Treasury who has designated an officer of the United States Custom-House in 

 New York, to receive and despatch to Washington cases containing international 

 exchanges, all of these cases being passed both in this country and abroad free of 

 custom duties. 



Grateful acknowledgments are also <lue to the following transportation companies 

 and others for their liberality in granting the privilege of free freight or in other- 

 wise assisting in the transmission of exchange parcels and boxes, while to other 

 firms thanks are due for reduced rates of transportation in consideration of the 

 disinterested services of the Institution in the diffusion of knowledge: 



