ADDRESSES 305 



its short session. The chairman refused to consider it, on 

 the ground that the appropriations had already been made 

 up, that this would require an extra appropriation for the 

 purchase of extra cloth, and that he was pledged not to ask 

 for any extra appropriations. It was urged that this did not 

 call for any extra expense, as the money from the sales 

 would be covered back into the Treasury. But the chair- 

 man refused to recede from his position. Your commit- 

 tee recommend a continuance of effort on the same lines. 



At the same time legislation was sought for making the 

 land-grant colleges depositories of all government publica- 

 tions. A bill was drafted and introduced into the Com- 

 mittee on Printing. Objection on technical grounds having 

 been made, it was withdrawn, and introduced a second time 

 in a modified form. The approaching difficulty with Spain, 

 however, soon absorbed the entire attention of Congress, 

 and it failed to be reported. Your committee has since 

 learned that there are not copies of the public documents 

 sufficient to supply the colleges, and that a second bill, 

 providing for this addition, would be necessary. 



Of all the questions submitted for the consideration of 

 your committee no one has caused so much anxiety as that 

 involving the annuity passing under the name of the Morrill 

 fund. The act (Senate, 372) providing free homes on the 

 public lands for actual and bona fide settlers by reserving 

 the public lands, twenty million acres, for that purpose, 

 struck immediately at the source from which the Morrill 

 annuity is derived, namely, the proceeds derived from 

 the sale of public lands. The act provides "That all set- 

 tlers under the homestead laws of the United States upon 

 the public lands acquired prior to the passage of this act 



