42 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Tlic cnil)as!5'y acknowledged the receipt of the Secretary's letter in the 

 following- terms: 



Embassy of the United States of America, ' 



Berlin, July 25, 1900. 



Sir: Before going on leave Mr. White turned over to me your letter 

 of the 20th instant, the receipt of which has, I believe, already been 

 acknowledged. Mr. White did not, however, inform me as to wnat he 

 had written you, and now that he will not be here I do not know if it 

 is still 3^our intention to come to Berlin. I therefore write to say that 

 1 shall be here through the summer, and will gladly do anything in 

 my power to be of service in the matter in question. The Department 

 of State, under date of the 21st ultimo, had already instructed the 

 Embassy in regard to its assisting you. 



As you are no doubt aware, German (Imperial, Prussian, Bavarian, 

 Saxon, Wiirttemberg, or Baden) public documents are not distributed 

 gratuitously as freely as are similar documents in the United States, 

 and that if any ministry or other similar office wishes to have more 

 than the limited number of such documents as are regularl}- placed at 

 its disposal it must purchase them from the publisher. You also, of 

 course, know that as yet Germany has no central distributing office 

 similar to that of the Smithsonian Institution, nor does any such office 

 exist in any of the several federated states. Moreover, I have not 

 heard of any intention to establish any such office or offices, and I do 

 not know of any central authority who (which) might be interested in 

 maintaining an exchange of puV)lic documents with all six of the insti- 

 tutions with which you noNv exchange. Would it not be practicable to 

 correspond with the heads of each of these six institutions, making 

 each one responsible for your receiving a proper return of the docu- 

 ments of the Empire or the individual State which 3"ou consider him 

 to represent i 



Awaiting a further communication from you before taking any 

 action, I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



John B. Jackson, 



Charge (T Affaires. 

 'Hon. S. P. Langley, 



Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution., 



Care of American Einhassy, London. 



Upon the Secretp.ry's arrival at Berlin ho found a note at the 

 embassy from Mr. Herbert Putnam, the Lil)rarian of Congress, A\hich, 

 as it bears an important part in the work, is quoted in full: 



Hotel Bristol, 



Berlin, August 11, 1900. 



My Dear Dr. Langley: I brought to Berlin notes of inti'oduction 

 from the German ani))assador at Washington to the imperial minister 

 of the interior and to the Prussian Kultus-Minister and had intended 

 to approach tliese officials in the matter of international exchanges. 



Learning, however, at the American emimssy that you are to visit 

 Berlin on a similar mission, I have contented myself with the mere 

 delivery of my credentials, accompanying them, however, with a note, 

 in which 1 intimated the proljability of your visit and urged the 



