FORTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1885-1887. 1027 



Majdr J. W. Powell reported the cost of publishing the reports of the Bureau of 



Ethnology. 



Work charged: 



1881 $9, 555. 14 



1882 55, 137. 12 



1883 - 9, 123. 27 



1884 41, 152. 66 



1885 4, 110. 44 



Total 119, 478. 63 



July 17, 1886— House. 



Mr. Wm. M. Springer, from the Committee on Claims, submitted 

 a report (H. 3318) to accompany bill (H. 9865): 



The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred, from the Com- 

 mittee on Appropriations, the following resolution — 



That the Committee on Appropriations be discharged from the consideration of 

 the item in the Book of Estimates for 1887, page 205, "to refund the duty paid by 

 Semon Bache & Co., of New York, upon glass from imported stock furnished to the 

 National Museum, and the New Orleans, Louisville, and Cincinnati Expositions, for 

 exhibition cases, $3,562.56," and that the same be referred to the Committee on 

 Claims — 



having had the same under consideration, report back the same with 

 the accompanjnng bill, and recommend that the bill be passed. The 

 amount covered by this bill U $3,562.56. 



The Secretar}" of the Treasury placed this sum in the Book of Esti- 

 mates, on page 205, and recommended that the sum be allowed as a 

 part of the ordinary expen'ses of the Government; but the Committee 

 on Appropriations were of the opinion that it was properly a claim to 

 be presented in the usual wa}'. The reason for the allowance of this 

 claim is stated in the letter of Prof. Spencer F. Baird, as follows: 



Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washivgton, D. C, June 30, 1886. 



Dear Sir: I beg respectfully to invite your attention to an item recently referred 

 to your committee, by order of the House, discharging the Corhmittee on Appropria- 

 tions from further consideration of the subject, said item being found in the Book of 

 Estimates, page 205, a copy of which I inclose, together with my letter at that time in 

 regard to it. 



In this connection 1 would state that the item in question has twice been estimated 

 for by the Secretary of the Treasury. In the deficiency estimates for the fiscal year 

 1885 (p. 9, letter of Secretary of the Treasury of January 22, 1885, House Ex. Doc. 

 No. 115), it ajjpears for the first time, but through inadvertence my explanatory 

 letter was not printed with the estimates, ancl not fully understanding the subject, the 

 item was left out in making up the deficiency bill. 



In view of my printed explanation of this measure, it would seem an minecessary 

 trespass upon your time to state anything further with regard to it, unless it be that 

 it is just and would not have been rendered necessary but for the rule of the Treasury 

 Department operating retroactively upon Messrs. Bache & Co., thereby depriving 

 them of permit, to which they were entitled for glass taken from stock ujj to the date 

 of the order, said order being the result of unsatisfactory methods of doing business 

 on the part of another firm in New York, dealing extensively in glass importation. 



