FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1059 
Year by year the appropriations were increased, the scope of the work enlarged, 
-and the labors of the Commissioner amplified in proportion, until, including the ap- 
propriations for the fiscal year 1886, the sum amounted (in all) to over $2,000,000. 
The average amount of time required of the Commissioner exclusively for the 
duties of the Commission is not less than six hours a day, mostly in the early morn- 
ing and in the evening, after the office work of the Smithsonian is completed. 
The Commission is organized on a business basis, corresponding to that of other 
bureaus of the Government, although more completely than most of them. 
The correspondence of the Commission is enormous; the letters received, and re- 
quiring the attention more or less direct of the Commissioner, amounting to at least 
15,000 per annum, and as many more circulars and blanks. The letters written by 
the dictation of the Commissioner, or by his direction, and reviewed by him before 
signing, represent half that number. 
‘The death of Professor Henry, in 1878, and the succession of the present Commis- 
sioner to the office of Secretary of the Smithonian Institution so greatly increased 
his work as to make it necessary to give up all outside work which has enabled him 
to add to his private revenue. 
For a number of years all the office accommodations and conveniences required by 
the Commission were furnished gratuitously by the Commissioner in his private resi- 
dence. From 1871 to 1875 one of the best rooms of his house on New York avenue 
was given up for the needs of the Commission, including office accommodation of the 
clerks. The increasing magnitude of the work made other additional space neces- 
sary, and the Commissioner built a large house on Massachusetts avenue, mainly for 
this purpose, arranging it entirely in the interest of the Commission. These accom- 
modations included two basement rooms with iron safe, closet, and other necessities. 
This for a time answered all the purposes of the Commission, but with the increasing 
growth it became inadequate, and an appropriation was obtained from Congress for 
renting a house next door to the Commissioner’s residence, and connected with it by 
an iron door, allowing free access between the two buildings. 
A few years later the accommodations again became insufficient, and the Commis- 
sioner extended his private residence for the purpose of obtaining an additional room. 
No rent was ever asked or received by the Commissioner for any of the quarters fur- 
nished by him. At present all the expenses of lighting, heating, etc., in the rooms 
of No. 1445 Massachusetts avenue are borne by the Commissioner. The rent paid by 
the Commissioner for his house on New York avenue was $55 per month, and the 
house was quite sufficient for his own needs. The cost of the building on Massachu- 
setts avenue has been not less than $30,000, plus the taxes and insurance and extra 
expense of maintaining so large an establishment, representing the increased cost to 
him of hardly less than $1,500 for continuing for fifteen years to act as the unpaid 
servant of the Government in connection with Fish Commission work. 
The alternation of the headquarters of the Fish Commission office for three or four 
months in the summer from Washington to some point on the seacoast from which 
investigations could be prosecuted made it necessary for the Commissioner to take 
his family with him, involving much additional expense in passenger fares, board, 
etc. The necessity of spending the summer in small fishing villages along the coast 
has also involved more or less inconvenience and almost privation. 
_ The construction of the Commissioner’s residence on Massachusetts avenue was 
made in part at the expense of Mrs. Baird’s share of her father’s property, and in 
part of the moneys earned by his own editorial work. If his money had not been 
invested in this manner it would have been invested otherwise, so as to have pro- 
duced a corresponding income, the house on New York avenue being amply suffi- 
cient for his needs. It may be safely said, therefore, that apart from any question 
of compensation for services rendered, the many questions connected with the 
accommodations of the Commission and the loss of interest on the investment—the 
