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FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 1387 
tion prevailing in this city. I say that it ought to be low.. If you 
wish to be economical in the salaries of the employees of the Govern- 
ment, you should be careful not to enter upon the policy of extravagant 
expenditures that will lay heavy burdens upon them. 
But the three propositions I have presented here are those which 
influence me in regard to this matter. The people, if they erect a 
National Museum, should control it for all the citizens of the country, 
but not unite with the people of the District of Columbia in that control. 
Mr. Benton McMinn. Will the gentleman allow me to interrupt 
him for a question just there? Your position, as I understand it, is 
that it encourages a partnership in taxation or expenditure between the 
United States and the government of the District of Columbia. 
Mr. CanpieEr, of Massachusetts. In regard to the public Museum 
and the Smithsonian, and institutions of that character. 
Mr. McMurry. Does not the gentleman know that there is a part- 
nership already entered into between the National Government and 
the District of Columbia to-day ? 
' Mr. Canpier, of Massachusetts. I beg pardon, but it has no rel- 
evancy to the question I am discussing. 
But, Mr. Speaker, I do not think it necessary to elaborate the prop- 
ositions I have already presented. I say if the Government of the 
United States can not afford, in a dignified way, as the representative 
of the whole people, to carry on a measure of this public importance— 
a public museum in a proper manner—then let us drop the whole mat- 
ter; let us stop right here and not shift half of the expenditures to the 
people of the District. 
Mr. Brecxryrivcr, of Kentucky. If the gentleman will permit me 
just one moment, in the line of the question suggested by the gentle- 
man from Tennessee, I wish to say that the District of Columbia does 
not pay anything for repairs for the Patent Office, for instance; nor 
does it pay for the Library. 
Mr. McMirurn. I did not make any such statement. All that I 
desired to call attention to is just this, that there is a debt incurred for 
- the benefit of the city of Washington, and the Government is now 
paying one-half of the interest on it and is burdened with one-half of 
the expense of running the government of the District. 
Mr. Brecxinriner, of Kentucky. But that is the very point. The 
District of Columbia and the General Government do not go partners 
as to the permanent appropriations that the United States make for 
permanent improvements. It is a temporary arrangement by which 
the Government of the United States, the largest land owner in the 
District, pays one-half of the taxation for the running of the city govy- 
ernment and certain expenses. 
But as to all of the appropriations which are of a permanent char- 
acter, and which belong to the Government of the United States as a 
