460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



results of some important expedition, like that of the Challenger, 

 for example, and not printing enough copies to meet even the 

 hungry demand of her own special students. We have never 

 erred in this respect, and in the scathing comments which this 

 particular English frugality has received from her own men, our 

 country has invariably been held up in striking contrast as an 

 example to imitate. With the liberality of the General Govern- 

 ment in this respect it is a pity that the distribution of printed 

 matter should not be better systematized. There are many docu- 

 ments that doubtless represent official reports which are circu- 

 lated not so much for instruction as to inform the country just 

 what has been done by certain bureaus, and these probably reach 

 the proper parties, in being sent to those prominent in govern- 

 mental and political matters. With these we are not concerned. 

 There are many other publications, however, that are issued 

 solely for the purposes of information and instruction in lines 

 of thought in which there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of 

 students in the United States. It is obvious that if these kinds 

 of documents are issued to advance learning, then such copies, 

 as are freely distributed through the mails should go to those who 

 most need them. The present distribution of many of them is 

 so imperfect that it would be paralleled by the Pension Bureau 

 issuing a certain number of money checks to congressmen and 

 senators to scatter where they pleased, or to realize on them if 

 they were so inclined. Let me make this clearer. So far as I have 

 been able to ascertain, the regular edition of a public document 

 is nineteen hundred. From this edition fifty foreign governments, 

 and the larger libraries and institutions in this country are each 

 supposed to receive a copy. Each senator and congressman is 

 entitled to two copies, and probably more for the asking. It is 

 a common belief that many of these men dump their public 

 documents into the waste-paper barrel, for the janitor to realize 

 upon as old paper, which at one time had some value. As a 

 matter of fact, many of them are sold to the junk shops, where 

 they find their way into the secondhand book stalls ; and students 

 who want them are grateful for even this opportunity of secur- 

 ing them by purchase. It would certainly seem that a report 

 which is of special interest to a greater or less number of stu- 

 dents and writers should in some way get to them, and that 

 their names should be on some permanent list at headquarters, 

 so that when any report in their special line of thought is pub- 

 lished they should be among the first to receive it. Not only is 

 it evident that the Government publications often fall into the 

 wrong hands, but, worse still, hundreds of thousands of volumes 

 are rotting in the cellars of the Capitol and vitiating the air by 

 their decomposition. A committee recently appointed by the 



