1376 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
If it is to be national in its scope, and you want these gifts and 
treasures, then make it national. Make it so that it can reflect some- 
thing of the grandeur of a great nation. Why, the people of the world 
had just as soon send such things to Chicago, or Baltimore, or Phila- 
delphia, if these institutions are to be merely local in their character. 
But, Mr. Speaker, beyond all of that, the men in charge of the Smith- 
sonian seem to have for years escaped any censure for extravagance 
or squandering; and it seems to have been one of the institutions of 
the Government wisely administered in the past. Founded for the 
advancement of knowledge, this is an adjunct, just as the Museum is 
now to the Smithsonian, and that is under the control of that institution. 
Why, I may answer my friend from Georgia and my friend from 
Illinois, should we spend a dollar of the national moneys for a dead 
fish or the skeleton of some extinct animal, and put it in the National 
Museum, without making the District of Columbia pay one-half, 
according to their theory? The people of the District of Columbia have 
access to this Museum. ‘They can go there as they can go to this park; 
and yet the Government has gathered together there an interesting col- 
lection without compelling this people to pay one-half. Why do you 
not saddle one-half of the expenses of the Medical Museum on the 
people of Washington ? 
If this was a question where the people of the District of Columbia 
were interested in the advancement of real estate, or interested for spec- 
ulative purposes in this proposed establishment, that would present a_ 
question well worthy of consideration. But where is the man here or 
eJsewhere who can now rise up in his place and assert that the citizens 
of the District of Columbia have ever asked him to advance the interests 
of this park or have a bill passed for either of these purposes? I would 
like to know that gentleman, and I will give him a half minute of my 
time to name an instance. They believe it should be entirely a national 
affair for the interest and honor of the whole country.. That is the 
spirit in which the Senate has twice passed the bill; that is the spirit 
in which it was introduced in this House after it had been introduced 
in the Senate by Senator Beck, of Kentucky, and introduced in the 
House by the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Breckinridge] now on 
this floor. It was introduced as a national project; let us consider it 
and pass it in the same spirit. Let us recede from our amendment 
and agree to the Senate bill. Let the bill pass, and the $92,000 be 
spent for housing the animals we have and for bringing specimens from 
all over the country as well as the transportation of the gifts from the 
other nations of the world which will be made if this is a national 
park. 
I now yield to the gentleman from Kentucky as much time as he 
may desire. 
Mr. Witiiam C, P. Breckrnriper, of Kentucky. Mr, Speaker, my 
