1326 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
tives. Notwithstanding the constant growth of the collections, the great increase in 
the number of visitors, and the yearly extending demands of the public upon the 
scientific staff of the Museum, the appropriations for the coming year, as indicated 
in the report of the House committee, are no greater than for 1888-89, and $5,000 less 
than for 1889-90. 
I submitted an estimate, $175,000, being an increase of $35,000, for the ‘‘ preserva- 
tion and increase of collections,’’ and $30,000 for ‘‘furniture and fixtures,’’ the same 
amount that was last year appropriated. The reduction of the furniture and fixtures 
appropriation by $5,000 is not so important a matter, provided that an increase be 
allowed in the other item. At least $20,000 additional is actually necessary for the 
proper conduct of the work now on hand, without allowing for any expansion 
whatsoever. : 
The appropriation, for the maintenance of the National Museum of the United 
States are far smaller than those for similar government institutions in England, 
France, Germany, and Austria; and, notwithstanding the valuable gifts of collec- 
tions constantly received, the Museum is unable to maintain a standing and dignity 
worthy of the nation. 
The salaries paid to clerks and other administrative employees are so small that 
the best of them are constantly being taken away by the Executive Departments of 
the Government, much to the detriment of the Museum service. 
The paid scientific staff is too small. Much of the scientific ‘administrative work 
is performed by volunteers, who receive no pay for their service—a system advan- 
tageous to a limited extent, but not so to the degree to which it has been necessary 
to apply it in the National Museum. 
More watchmen are required for the proper policing of the buildings, and more 
laborers and cleaners to keep the exhibition halls in presentable condition. 
Indeed, the expansion of the Museum, which is really not keeping pace with the 
growth of the country and of the scientific work of the Government in general, ren- 
ders an increase in the appropriations imperatively necessary. 
I do not wish to burden you with statistics, but as an indication of the change of 
conditions within a very few years, I may state that the number of visitors during the 
last fiscal year was about 375,000, compared with 167,500 in 1882; that the extent of 
the collections on July 1, 1889, was nearly 2,900,000 specimens, compared with less 
than 194,000 at the end of 1882, the first year of organized work in the new Museum 
building; that the number of letters sent out during the past fiscal year, chiefly in 
response to demands for information and other assistance in connection with scien- 
tific matters, has been 5,350, contrasted with 2,700 in the previous year; that the 
number of scientific departments in the Museum is now 36, contrasted with 15 in 1882. 
Although, as I have stated, the decrease of $5,000 in the furniture and fixtures 
appropriations is not the most important of the matters which I wish to bring to 
your attention, I sincerely hope that the full amount may be granted for the follow- 
ing reasons: Every year the Museum is offered valuable private collections as gifts 
or as long-time deposits on the condition that they shall be properly installed in 
suitable cases especially constructed for them, and it is from this source that many 
of the most important recent additions to the national collections have been received, 
for in a large number of instances collections thus placed in the custody of the 
National Museum, if installed to the satisfaction of the owners, are never removed. 
The value of the collections thus acquired is always far greater than that of the 
cases in which they are placed, and any reduction of the furniture and fixtures 
appropriation at the present time will necessarily interfere to a certain extent with 
this important means of developing the collections in the National Museum. 
I fear that I have not hitherto urged these considerations as strongly as it was my 
duty to have done, and I trust that your committee will be disposed to give them 
their most careful attention. Iam sure that an examination of the reviews of the 
