8 REPORT OF THE ACTING SECRETARY. 



name of the Smithsonian is a household word throughout the United 

 States, that it has been carried to every land where civilization 

 exists, and that the benefits of this foundation, while naturally inur- 

 ing most strongly to the people of the land in which the establish- 

 ment was created, are yet truly extended to all men, and that the 

 United States, through its legislative and executive branches of the 

 Government, through the distinguished men who have served upon 

 the Board of Regents, and the great scientific leaders and thinkers — 

 Henry, Baird, and Langley — has rendered to the world at large a 

 more than faithful account of its stewardship of this unique bequest. 



ADMINISTRATION. 



The duties of the Secretary during his absence in the summer and 

 from the time when his final illness began, in November, 1905, were 

 performed by Mr. Richard Rathbun, an assistant secretary of the 

 Institution, by designation of the Chancellor under authority of 

 the act of May 13, 1 884, providing for the appointment of an acting 

 secretary. That the work progressed so well is due to the hearty 

 support given by the entire staflF in what proved to be one of the 

 most trying years in the historj'^ of the Institution. 



Dr. Cyrus Adler entered upon the discharge of his duties as 

 assistant secretary in charge of library and exchanges on July 1, 1905, 

 and on the same date Mr. F. W. Hodge, who, for about four years, 

 had served as acting curator of exchanges and assistant in charge of 

 the Smithsonian office, resumed his duties as ethnologist in the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology. 



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 di- 

 rection had to be noted in the quarterly statements made to the Presi- 

 dent and the annual statement made to Congress in accordance Avith 

 law. 



As has been customary, the estimates submitted to Congress in 

 October, 1905, were accomiDanied by a letter explaining concisely but 

 as forcibly as possible the reasons for requesting the amounts named 

 in connection with each item. In the hearings on these estimates 

 before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, 

 which occupied the greater part of two days in April, 1906, the 

 workings of the Institution and its branches were fully discussed, 

 iind it is my opinion that the importance of the activities conducted 

 under the direction of the Board of Regents is well appreciated by 

 the members of that subcommittee. 



