FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 1419 
under the direction and supervision of the Regents of the Smithsonian 
Institution, etc. When that act was passed the Board of Regents 
accepted the trust and appointed a board or commission to supervise 
the construction of the building and to see that it was constructed in 
accordance with the plans and specifications, to subserve the purposes 
had in view by Congress in establishing the Museum. Every dollar of 
the money that was appropriated and expended was expended under 
the direction of that board or commission. 
All this you will find in the Smithsonian report for 1879. Now, 
when Congress passed the act providing for the establishment of the 
National Zoological Park and placed the park under the control of the 
Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, I hold that not a dollar of that 
money could be lawfully expended without the acceptance of the trust 
by the Board of Regents, and that has not been done. In order to 
bring the matter before the House and get at the facts a little more 
fully, I have introduced to-day another resolution of inquiry which is 
addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury, asking him to inform 
Congress by what authority this money has been expended and 
whether it has been paid out and expended in accordance with law. 
Mr. B. M. Curcuron. If the Board of Regents proceeded to admin- 
ister the trust, would not that be as much an acceptance of it as if they 
had taken formal action to that effect? 
Mr. Entor. Certainly, if they proceeded to administer it; but they 
have had no meeting since the trust was imposed upon them, and 
therefore they can not have taken any action of that kind. But the 
Secretary and the executive board have assumed, I suppose, that the 
Board of Regents, when it did meet, would approve whatever had been 
done by them. 
Mr. Miuirken. Let me ask the gentleman why this whole matter 
should not be taken charge of by the Supervising Architect of the 
Treasury ? 
Mr. Entor. I suppose that is governed by the act making the 
appropriation. 
No one else is directed or authorized to accept this trust but the 
Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and they could only carry it 
forward in pursuance of the designs of Congress. There has been no 
official acceptance of the trust by the Regents, but the Secretary of 
the Smithsonian Institution has been acting, I suppose, on the assump- 
tion that his acts would be approved by the board when it met. 
Now, the board holds its meeting to-morrow, and I wanted to call 
attention to the matter to-day so that it might be brought to the 
attention of the board at this meeting. It seems to me that it is a 
very loose way of doing business to provide a national park and place 
it under the control of such a body as the Board of Regents of the 
Smithsonian Institution, made up as that is, consisting of the Vice- 
