904 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



(3) International Exchanges, Smithsonian Institution, 1884: For 

 expenses of the international exchanges between the United States 

 and foreign countries, in accordance with the Paris convention of 

 1877, including salaries and compensation of all necessary employees, 

 $7,500. (Page 36.) 



It was at the special request of the Smithsonian Institution that the 

 appropriation for the fiscal year of 1884 was placed under the heading 

 of the State Department, the committee having actually transferred it 

 from the estimates of that Department and placed it under the Inte- 

 rior. It was, however, distinctly understood by the committee that 

 the expenditure was to be made by the Smithsonian Institution as in 

 previous years, and in accordance with its organization of the service. 



(4) War Department: Transportation of reports and maps to for- 

 eign countries, 1884. For the transportation of reports and maps to 

 foreign countries through the Smithsonian Institution, $300. (Page 85.) 



(5) Contingent and miscellaneous expenses, Naval Observatory, 

 1884: For payment to Smithsonian Institution for freight on observa- 

 tory publications sent to foreign countries, $336. (Page 133.) 



Here the appropriation is made under the Navy Department, the 

 preceding one under that of War. 



It will thus be seen that appropriations are made under four of the 

 several departments of the Government Congress, State, War, and 

 Navy for the purpose of conducting the special exchanges in their 

 interest respectively. The appropriation under the State Department 

 is the more general, and is available for miscellaneous purposes. 



In all these appropriations the Smithsonian Institution is mentioned 

 either inferentially, as with the appropriation under the heading of 

 the Library of Congress, or directly, as in those under the depart- 

 ments, as the special agency through whose system the work is to be 

 done. 



The question as to whether the Smithsonian Institution was desig- 

 nated by Congress to act as the medium of international exchange was 

 asked by Sir Edward Thornton in 1876, in a letter printed on page 13, 

 of the History of International Exchanges. 1 This inquiry, addressed 

 to the Secretary of State, was transmitted to the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion and answered by my predecessor, I presume to the satisfaction of 

 the Department. 



By reference to a letter of September 26, 1878, printed on page 18 of 

 the document referred to, it will be seen that the Secretary of State 

 notified the United States minister at Paris that, so far as the special 

 domestic bureau of exchanges is concerned, it was considered " pref- 

 erable to leave the work with the Smithsonian Institution rather than 

 to replace it by the organization of a new bureau ad hoc in the Depart- 

 ment of State, but that no objection is seen to entering into a common 



1 Ex. Doc. No. 172, 47th Cong., 1st sess. 



