1168 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
officers there are careful, prudent men, and know at all times what 
they are talking about. Now, as to the views of my colleague [Mr. 
Cannon] that it ought to go over to another Congress, it must be 
borne in mind if we are to have a zoolgical garden, where every 
animal of this country is to be gathered, it is time we were moving. 
Already a large number of animals that were indigenous to this coun- 
try have passed away. The buffalo is almost a creature of the past; 
and if it is desirable to have such places, and if we are to preserve all 
these curiosities in this country, I think it is time we were moving in 
it. Besides, a year or two of delay will see the land contemplated for 
it cut up and largely occupied as residences, and we will then be too 
late. 
The objection is made that we are going into the ‘‘ show business.” 
That kind of remark, sometimes coupled with a sneer—I do not say 
that it has been so in this debate—can be urged against the Medical 
Museum, the National Museum, and public parks and gardens every- 
where; but it will not do to make that an argument in a case like this. 
Mr. Speaker, this is a democratic movement. It is a movement in 
the interest of the masses of the people. He who favors parks, where 
the people can take recreation and come in contact with nature; he 
who favors public libraries, where the masses of the people can acquire 
knowledge, is taking an advanced stand in the interest of the masses. 
But some gentlemen say that this garden should not be established at 
Washington; that it should be in the National Park. Gentlemen, you 
will find that a very large number of your constituents will from year 
to year visit the national capital, while very few of them, compara- 
tively, will ever go to the National Park. Besides, I am opposed to 
sending this garden to the National Park. That institution is practi- 
cally owned now by a great hotel monopoly. That great National 
Park is owned and controlled practically by one corporation, and I 
understand that there is now a bill in this House to put the rivets into 
it and fasten it as an attachment to that corporation. 
Mr. Speaker, let this garden be established at this great national 
center, where with our increasing railroad facilities more and more 
of our citizens will visit it every year, for there is no nation in the 
world whose people move about their country as ours do. More of 
our people will get the benefit of this garden in Washington than at 
any other point where it could be located. In connection with this 
discussion let it not be forgotten that this is a proposition which has 
been introduced into Congress by Senator Beck, a patriotic citizen, a 
man conservative in thought and in legislation, a man whom no mem- 
ber of this Congress will charge with being extravagant or favoring 
real-estate speculations. Let it be borne in mind also that the scien- 
tific men of this country stand back of this bill, urging it upon the 
consideration of Congress. Not only that, but the great agricultural 
