1394 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
gentleman from Illinois that he will find that the people of this Dis- 
trict who advocate the Rock:Creek park will be willing to take it as a 
partnership arrangement between the United States and the District 
until it has been established, and then at the next session it will be 
urged that it must be treated as national. We shall then hear that it 
is undignified to have the people of this District pay half of the expense 
of supporting such an institution, and that it must be unloaded upon 
the Government. 
Now, the appropriations for the District of Columbia for the present 
fiscal year amount to $5,682,000. In 1881 the amount was $3,426,000. 
It will be seen that for the present fiscal year the amount is nearly 
double what it was in 1881. One-half of the amount for the present 
fiscal year, which is charged to the Federal Government, is $2,841,000, 
in addition to the expenses of the supreme court of the District, the 
hospitals, and the other things which I have enumerated, and for the 
public parks of this District, all of which the Federal Government 
pays. 
Mr. McComas. In all the estimates for the District of Columbia 
was one dollar asked for this park? Did they want it? 
Mr. Ciements. They wanted this park; there was a great clamor 
here for it. The title is in the Federal Government; its management 
is vested in the Smithsonian Institution. The question simply is, 
whether, when the Government is already paying largely more than 
is its share in this District, is it just that the whole support of this 
Zoological Park shall be assumed by the General Government? I 
think the District should pay half of it. 
Mr. Burrerwortn. I think it is but fair to call my friend’s atten- 
tion to the fact that he was not heroic in resisting these enormous 
appropriations for the District of Columbia. 
Mr. Crements. Well, I did my best. I did not support this park. 
1 was not here when the District bill was up at this session. I was 
sick, and you rushed it through. I have always supported what I 
believed necessary for the District. It should be remembered that 
when the District government was abolished the debt of the District 
was over $20,000,000 and its bonds were far below par. The United 
States has assumed and is paying one-half of this, as well as current 
expenses. . 
Mr. Cannon. I now yield to the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. 
Dockery] ten minutes, or so much thereof as he may desire. 
Mr. Dockery. I am obliged to the gentleman from Illinois, and will 
endeavor to repay the courtesy by not occupying the entire time. 
Mr. Speaker, the question at issue here is whether the Government 
should pay the entire expense of maintaining the Zoological Park, or 
whether the District of Columbia should be required to pay one-half. 
In determining, at least, the moral responsibility of Congress it is 
