58 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



The appropriation by Congress for Ihe support of the service was $32,200 

 (the same amount as was granted for the fiscal years 1908 and 1909), and the 

 sum collected on account of repayments was $4,440.74, making the total avail- 

 able resources for carrying on the system of international exchanges $30,640.74. 

 The exchange office continues to render assistance to the Library of Con- 

 gress in obtaining foreign government documents needed to complete its sets. 



It is gratifying to state that the exchange relations with Korea, which were 

 interrupted during the late Russo-Japanese war, have been renewed, His Im- 

 perial Japanese Majesty's residency-general at Seoul having consented to act as 

 the exchange intermediary between the two countries. The number of publi- 

 cations exchanged between Korea and the United States was never very large, 

 and it is hoped that the establishment of an official medium through which con- 

 signments may be forwarded will result in a fuller interchange. 



While the K. K. Statistische Central-Commission in Vienna has been acting 

 as the exchange intermediary between Austria and the United States since 

 189S, it has been necessary tor the Smithsonian Institution, under the arrange- 

 ments entered into through the Imperial Academy of Sciences with the com- 

 mission, to bear all the expenses for freight on consignments both to and from 

 Vienna. The Government of Austria has now signified its willingness to assume 

 its share of the cost of conducting the exchanges between the two countries, 

 and In the future the Institution will therefore be relieved of this extra burden 

 upon its resources. The exchange work on the part of Austria will continue to 

 be carried on by the Statistical Commission. The thanks of the Institution are 

 due to the president of the imperial Academy of Sciences and to the president 

 of the Statistical Commission for assistance in this matter. 



I am very glad to be able to report that it now seems assured that the Insti- 

 tution will shortly be relieved of the expense of conducting the paid agency 

 which it lias maintained for many years in Leipsic to attend to the transmission 

 and distribution of exchanges between Germany and the United States. 



It is expected that in a few months there will be established in Berlin, under 

 the auspices of the German Government, an institution to further the cultural 

 relations between the two countries. This establishment will be known as the 

 America Institute, and it will assume as one of its functions the transmission 

 and distribution of German exchanges. 



While the America Institute has not yet begun active operations, it is expected 

 that it will be organized at an early day, and that it will be prepared to take 

 over the work of the exchange agency by the end of the calendar year. 



Dr. Hugo Munsterberg will be the first director of the America Institute. 



It has been the practice of the Institution to forward by registered mail 

 packages received from abroad for distribution in the United States. With a 

 view to reducing the work in the Exchange Office and also to relieving the 

 Post-Office Department of the extra expense entailed in handling this regis- 

 tered matter — numbering annually about 21,000 packages, aggregating a total 

 weight of over 120,000 pounds — the custom of registering exchanges was dis- 

 continued on October 17, 1909, consignments now being forwarded by ordinary 

 mail. It should be added in this connection, that the Institution is informed 

 by the Post-Office Department that in the ordinary mail there is an average loss 

 of only 1 package in 15,000. 



Exchange consignments form part of the cargo of almost every fast steam- 

 ship which leaves New York for a foreign port. It is therefore not surprising 

 that occasionally a case is lost through the wrecking of a steamer. During the 

 year a case containing exchanges for miscellaneous addresses in the Transvaal 

 was destroyed while en route to Pretoria, the steamship Norse Prince, by which 



