FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1047 
investigations auring the fiscal year, and $15,000 was provided ‘‘ for the introduction 
of shad into the waters of the Pacific States, the Gulf States, and of the Mississippi 
Valley; and of salmon, whitefish, and other useful food fishes into the waters of the 
United States to which they are best adapted.’’ Each succeeding year appropria- 
tions have been increased as the work was extended under the wise and successful 
management of the Commissioner. 
The act limiting the appointment of the Commissioner to the detail of some one at 
the time in the employ of the Government appears to have contemplated only an 
inquiry occupying perhaps a few summer months. 
At the time of the selection of Professor Baird his duties under his salaried posi- 
tion were comparatively light, as he was charged with the administration, under 
the Secretary, of the Museum, which was in those days contained in the small space 
which could be allowed in the Smithsonian building. Under Professor Baird’s 
masterly, wise, and energetic management both the Fish Commission and the 
National Museum have grown to large proportions, so that at his death the work of 
the Fish Commission had developed from an inquiry in 1871, on an appropriation 
of $5,000, to the production, transportation, and distribution of over 100,000,000 
young fish and the administration of some 16 hatching and rearing stations—2 
in Maine, at Grand Lake Stream and Bucksport; 2 in Massachusetts, at Gloucester 
and Woods Hole; 2 in Michigan, at Northville and Alpena; 1 at Duluth; 1 on the 
Columbia River; 2 in California, on the Sacramento; 1 on the Susquehanna, at Havre 
de Grace; 1 at the mouth of the Potomac; 2 within the city of Washington; 1 at 
Fort Washington, and 1 at Wytheville, Va.—besides the administration of scientific 
investigations and fish hatching done by three steam and one sailing vessel and of 
three transporting cars specially designed to transfer fish from one end of the coun- 
try to the other. 
The National Museum has had a corresponding expansion, for in addition to the 
hall of the Smithsonian, which held the collections in 1871, and whose administra- 
tion cost $20,000, a building covering 33 acres has been built and equipped, and it 
has been found necessary to appropriate $168,000 for their care this year. 
The necessity arose for husbanding and increasing our food resources, and Pro- 
fessor Baird created and expanded the Fish Commission, and although the act of 
1871 may have been prudent and a wise measure at the time it was enacted, and 
although the work of the Fish Commission as well as that of the Museum was well 
done by him, perhaps at sacrifice of some years of his valuable and honored life, it 
is to be doubted if, at the time of his appointment as Fish Commissioner, the Smith- 
sonian, the National Museum, and the Fish Commission had been of their present 
magnitude, Congress would have provided for their conduct being placed even on 
his broad shoulders and the work of three assigned to his well-trained and culti- 
vated intellect. 
The work of the Fish Commission has become so extensive and the results so 
important to the country that it should be made, as this bill proposes, the sole 
object of the Commissioner. It should occupy all his time. This bill, therefore, 
while giving the President the greatest latitude in making his choice, takes away 
the limitation that that choice shall be confined to those who may be otherwise 
employed by the Government. This bill repeals the provision of the act of 1871 
which requires that the now important and all-engrossing duties of the Fish Com- 
missioner shall be performed at the expense of some other department and some 
other appropriation. 
Under the present law the Commissioner must either hold a sinecure, receive a 
Government salary which he does not earn, or he must neglect duties for which he 
is paid in order that he might perform others for which he is not paid, or perhaps, 
as in the case of Professor Baird, devote hours which nature demands for rest and 
recreation to Government work without compensation. The first two alternatives 
