1404 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
ought to be owned and controlled by the nation, as in fact it is now. 
Such as they have now are on Government land over yonder, owned 
and controlled by the Government, not the land of the District. 
Mr. McCreary. Will the gentleman yield for a question 4 
- Mr. McComas. Ina moment. Such as they have ought to be under 
the same control; and, under the law which makes this park, the con- 
trol absolute and exclusive in the land is preserved in the Government 
of the United States in the act that was passed in the last Congress. 
That act was forced on the District bill. 
Mr. J. D. Savers. Will the gentleman yield for a question 4 
Mr.-McComas. Presently. 
It was put on in the Senate; and from the day of its discussion until 
now, I ask the gentleman from Illinois in charge of this report, if he 
has been pressed and besieged by petitions or requests of any sort 
from the people of this District asking the expenditure of this money 
for this purpose, and to have the park maintained at their expense? 
Now, in his own time, if he has had that pressure he can say so. 
Mr. Speaker, in my judgment, it is unjust to require these people to 
submit to this sort of a charge for an object in which they have no 
domestic or local concern, and whose only purpose, object, and prov- 
ince is a national effort to advance science and preserve from extinc- 
tion the rare species of animals of this country. And in conclusion I 
say the proper thing to do is to keep it on a national basis or wipe it 
out altogether. 
Mr. AnprERsON, of Kansas. Wipe it out. 
Mr. McComas. The gentleman from Kentucky said he desired to 
ask a question. I will be glad to answer him now. 
Mr. Sayers. I would like to ask the gentleman this question: Were 
not petitions presented and requests made from the citizens of the 
District of Columbia asking, in the last Congress, for an appropriation 
for the purchase of the land for this specific purpose 4 
Mr. McComas. I, on the committee which ought to have heard of 
it, happening to be on the subcommittee of the Committee on Appro- 
priations, which under ordinary practice would have charge of this 
very bill, if a District matter, have never to my recollection heard of 
any request from any man or organization of men of this District, or 
any agitation in the press or otherwise for this matter, and have 
always believed it to be entirely the result of an effort on the part of 
the Smithsonian Institution, its officers and Regents, to have the Gen- 
eral Government do this thing. That is my answer. 
Mr. Sayers. Your answer, then, refers as well to the present bill as 
to the former measure for the purchase of the land? 
Mr. McComas. All I have to say is that I have understood it to be 
an effort on the part of the Smithsonian Institution itself, and not on 
the part of the people here. 
