1056 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
Mr. Dunn. Mr. Speaker, I trust that the committee is now in the 
humor to rise and report this bill to the House; and I make that 
motion unless some other gentleman desires to be heard upon it. 
The motion was agreed to. 
The committee accordingly rose; and the Speaker having resumed 
the chair, Mr. SPRINGER reported that the Committee of the Whole 
House on the state of the Union, having had under consideration the 
bill (S. 261), had directed him to report the same to the House without 
amendment. 
The bill was passed. 
July 17, 1888. 
Statement of G. F. Edmunds to Committee on Appropriations 
Mr. James B. Breck. To what part of the bill do you wish to call 
the attention of the committee? 
Mr. G. F. Epmunps. I propose that you shall insert an amendment to 
pay Mrs. Professor Baird $50,000 for the fifteen years and a half of 
unrequited service that Professor Baird did for the United States; and 
this is my statement as a witness, which I have condensed as much as 
possible, to save your time: 
By the act of 9th February, 1871 (vol. 16, p. 594), Revised Statutes, 
section 4395, page 851, it was provided that— 
There shall be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, from among the civil officers or employees of the Government, a Commis- 
sioner of Fish and Fisheries, who shall be a person of proved scientific and practical 
acquaintance with the fish of the coast, and who shall serve without additional 
salary. 
Section 4396— 
The Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries shall prosecute investigations and inquir- 
ies on the subject, with the view of ascertaining whether any and what diminution 
in the number of the food-fishes of the coast and the lakes of the United States has 
taken place, and, if so, to what cause the same is due; and also whether any and 
what protective, prohibitory, or precautionary measures should be adopted in the 
premises, and shall report upon the same to Congress. 
From this it will be seen that the scope of the duties of the Com- 
missioner was limited to a purely scientific inquiry into an existing 
state of things, and it is apparent from the language of the statute 
that it was to be a temporary affair. 
Under this act Professor Baird (who was chon assistant secretary of 
the Smithsonian Institution at a salary of dollars) was appointed 
Commissioner to make these investigations, and he immediately 
entered upon the vigorous prosecution of his duties, and after his 
report Congress, in 1872, made provision for continuing the inquiry; 
and by the act of 10th June, 1872 (vol. 17, p. 350), it extended the 
