6 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
executive committee. After conferring, however, with my _ col- 
leagues on that committee and with the members of the Board of 
Regents, it was considered on all hands desirable and as productive of 
harmonious and useful cooperation between two kindred institutions 
that I should retain my membership of the board of trustees and of 
the executive committee of the Carnegie Institution. 
During the year the Smithsonian Institution cooperated with and 
received the aid of most of the Government Departments, though I 
may especially mention the Departments of State, Agriculture, In- 
terior, and Commerce and Labor, and the valuable advice and assist- 
ance received from the Department of Justice. Through its Ex- 
change Service, its publications, its collections, and in many other 
ways, the Institution continues in relation with most of the important 
scientific establishments and universities in this country and other 
lands, thus aiding the progress of science and preventing waste. 
With the consent of the Regents I have tendered to the National 
Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science office accommodations in the Smithsonian building, 
which have been accepted by the officials of both of these important 
national organizations. The Institution continues its cooperation 
with the American Historical Association in accordance with the 
provisions of the act incorporating that society. In general I deem 
it one of the important functions of the Institution that it should 
freely place its administrative machinery and opportunities at the 
service of all the great national learned societies in the hope that the 
work of all of them will be aided and duplication of labor and waste 
of energy avoided. 
ADMINISTRATION. 
In the administration of the Institution the Secretary has the 
valued aid of experienced officers and a well-trained staff. The 
Museum is in the immediate charge of Mr. Richard Rathbun, an 
Assistant Secretary of the Institution, and the Exchange Service, the 
- Library, and the Regional Bureau for the International Catalogue of 
Scientific Literature are under the supervision of Dr. Cyrus Adler, 
an Assistant Secretary. Mr. W. H. Holmes is Chief of the Bureau 
of American Ethnology, Dr. Frank Baker is Superintendent of 
the National Zoological Park, and Mr. C. G. Abbot is Director of 
the Astrophysical Observatory. 
A system in vogue of conferences between the Secretary and these 
officers on all subjects pertaining to the different branches has been 
maintained. The Secretary, as executive officer of the Board of 
Regents, deems the administration of the parent Institution his first 
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