SECRETARY’S REPORT 3 
the interests of better administration, notable among them being the 
creation of a new department in the National Museum—that of botany, 
which had formerly been a division under the department of biology. 
The latter was thereafter known as the department of zoology. Other 
changes will be noted in the appended reports on the bureaus of the 
Institution, but I should mention here the retirement of Harry W. 
Dorsey, Administrative Assistant to the Secretary. Mr. Dorsey had 
served the Institution faithfully and well for 59 years, and his long 
experience in handling important matters connected with the Secre- 
tary’s office and his unique knowledge of the history of the Institution 
will be greatly missed. 
INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND 
DEVELOPMENT 
On December 24, 1947, President Harry S. Truman established by 
Executive Order the Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific Re- 
search and Development, to be composed of a representative from each 
of the following agencies: the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, 
Commerce, Army, Navy, and Air Force, the National Military Estab- 
lishment, the Federal Security Agency, the Atomic Energy Commis- 
sion, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the Veterans 
Administration, and the Smithsonian Institution. In brief, the duties 
of the Committee are to recommend improvements in the research and 
development programs of the Federal Government, to recommend 
changes in administrative policies and procedures designed to increase 
the efficiency of such programs, and to study and report on current 
policies and practices relating to Federal support for research. 
Your Secretary was appointed Chairman of the Committee by the 
President. An organizational meeting was held at the White House 
on April 16, 1948, and shortly thereafter the work of the Committee 
got under way. As much of this work is obviously of a confidential 
nature, no report on it is made at this time. 
THE ESTABLISHMENT 
The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 1846, 
according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of England, who 
in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States of America “to 
found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, 
an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 
men.” In receiving the property and accepting the trust, Congress 
determined that the Federal Government was without authority to ad- 
minister the trust directly, and, therefore, constituted an “establish- 
ment” whose statutory members are “the President, the Vice President, 
the Chief Justice, and the heads of the executive departments.” 
