28 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



posed building should always remain under the absolute direction of 

 the Eeg-ents.^ 



The Secretary, in his report for 1888, represented to the Regents the 

 insufficiency of the existing accommodations for the collections already 

 in the possession of the Museum, which at that time, within seven years 

 after the completion of the present Museum building, was alread}' found 

 to be wholly inadequate. The history of the Museum since then has 

 been a uniform one of representations to Congress by the Regents of 

 the increasing insutficienc}' of its building and lately its intolerable 

 inadequacy. '^ 



In 1899 the Secretary took occasion to say to the Regents: 



"The nation has given an adequate house to its great collection of 

 books. Has not the time come to finally ask of Congress the provision 

 of an adequate home for this greater collection of specimens, a project 

 which was dear to the heart of your late colleague. Senator Mori-ill, 

 and one which he urged with almost his last breath ? " 



It has already been observed that by far the greater portion of the 

 treasures of the Museum have been acquired by Government explora- 



^ The proposition was not viewed favorably by the Board, the Chancellor stating 

 "that it was desirable that new Museum buildings should be erected in any case, 

 but that since by an act of Congress a certain part of the pul)lic grounds had been 

 set apart and appropriated absolutely and exclusively to the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, he for one did not want to see anything else placed on these grounds." 



He further said: "If the Smithsonian Institution is to grow, it will need them 

 all, and whatever is put upon them should be under our exclusive control." (Jour- 

 nal Proceedings of Regents, page xv, Report 1888.) 



The remarks of the Regents in discussing this proposition indicated clearly that 

 the view of the Chancellor had their unanimous approval. 



'^ A bill was introduced by Senator Morrill on June 12, 1888, for the erection of an 

 additional IMuseum building, and the measure was favorably acted upon by the 

 Senate, but failed in the House. On June 21 of the same year Senator Morrill moved 

 the provisions of the bill in the form of an amendment to the sundry civil bill for 

 1889, and at the following session (January 17, 1889) he again introduced this pro- 

 vision as an amendment to the sundry civil bill for 1890. 



In the Fifty-first Congress Senator Morrill again reported, from the Committee on 

 Public Buildings and Grounds, the bill for a new Museum building, which bill was 

 passed by the Senate April 5, 1890, and not being reported in the House, was, on 

 June 24, 1890, as in previous sessions, again reported by Senator INIorrill as an 

 amendment to the sundry civil bill (for 1891), which amendment was agreed to by 

 the Senate, but failed in conference, as before. On January 9, 1891, Mr. Milliken, of 

 the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, reported a bill with these same 

 provisions in the House and Senator Morrill again introduced it into the Senate as 

 an amendment to the sundry civil bill for 1892. The provisions were repeated in the 

 bill introduced in the Fifty-second Congress by Senator INIorrill, when the bill was 

 agreed to by the Senate, but no action was taken in the House. In the Fifty-third 

 Congress the same bill was introduced by Senator Morrill into the Senate, but not 

 reported. It was again introduced into the Fifty-fourth Congress and later as an 

 amendment. In the latter Congress Senator Morrill offered the identical ])rovisiou 

 as an amendment to the sundry civil bill for 1897. This was again agreed to by the 

 Senate, r^v^t failed in the House and was eliminated in conference. 



