REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 7 
care, but fully recognizes the importance of the branches supported 
by the Government, many of which are inherent in the organic act 
of the Institution, and desires, in cooperation with the Board and 
the Congress, to administer and develop these important charges of 
the Institution. 
The duties of the Secretary from the date of the death of Mr. 
Langley up to the end of January, 1907, when I was appointed to 
that office, were performed with ability and fidelity by Mr. Richard 
Rathbun, an Assistant Secretary of the Institution, by designation 
of the Chancellor under authority of the act of May 13, 1894, pro- 
viding for the appointment of an Acting Secretary. 
It is gratifying to report that the current business of the Institu- 
tion was conducted in a prompt and efficient manner, and that no 
arrearages in the work of the Government branches under its direc- 
tion had to be noted in the quarterly statements made to the Presiden< 
and the annual statement made to Congress in accordance with law. 
In view, however, of the recent examination by a commission 
appointed by the President into the business methods of all of the 
Government Departments, not including the branches under the 
charge of the Smithsonian Institution, I thought it wise to appoint 
a committee for the purpose of examining into the business methods 
of the Institution and its several branches, with a view to suggesting, 
if found desirable, improvements in the business methods of the 
Institution and its various brariches, and in the transaction of busi- 
ness between them and the Institution. 
Mr. H. W. Dorsey, who had been for many years connected with 
the Institution, was on March 29 appointed chief clerk. 
Several amendments affecting the operation of the civil-service 
Jaw and rules in their bearing on the personnel of the branches of the 
Government service under the direction of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion were promulgated by Executive order during the year. The 
only change in the rules, however, which affects the branches of the 
Institution specifically is that announced in the Executive order of , 
April 15, 1907. This provides that the paragraph in the legislative 
act approved June 22, 1906 (prohibiting the transfer of any employee 
in the classified service from one Executive Department to another 
until the employee shall have served for a term of three years in the 
Department from which transfer is desired), may be waived in pro- 
posed transfers to or from the Smithsonian Institution and certain 
independent bureaus or offices of the Government, when in the judg- 
ment of the Civil Service Commission the interests of the service so 
require. : 
41780—08-—_5 
