ye eee 
a a ei 
FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 1429 
the Whole than upon the faith that the body may have in this par- 
ticular committee which it is following in this matter. 
Mr. Cannon. In order to accommodate the gentleman, I have with- 
drawn the point of order, that he may devote himself to the merits of 
the question. 
Mr. Brecxinripcr, of Kentucky. I think there is a very broad 
distinction in point of justice between requiring the District of Colum- 
bia to pay half of the purchase price of this park and requiring it to 
pay half of the expense of the collection of the animals that are to be 
gathered there. I did not think it proper for the District to pay any 
part of this expense. I thought it wiser that the General Government 
should carry on this enterprise exactly as it carries on the Smithsonian 
Institution. It appeared to me that this park had nothing to do with 
the District of Columbia except that it is located in it; that it is the 
enterprise of the United States growing out of the original acceptance 
by the Government of the bequest of James Smithson and our putting 
that bequest into official shape by the establishment of the Smithson- 
ian Institution. 
In my view, if it was a proper expense to send agents all over the 
country to find the skeletons of animals, it was an equally proper 
expense to collect living animals and to prevent particular species from 
becoming extinct. I thought that the District of Columbia had prop- 
erly no part in this matter; that the General Government should not . 
give the District any control over it and ought not to put upon the 
District the burden of paying any part of the expense of maintaining 
the park. 
Now, this has gone one step farther than we have ever undertaken 
to go before. Heretofore we only made the District of Columbia pay 
its share for the original improvement. 
Mr. BurrerworrH. I do not understand, if the gentleman from 
Kentucky will permit an interruption, that the act authorizing the con- 
struction of this park had conferred upon the District of Columbia any 
jurisdiction over the management of it. 
Mr. BreckinrineGr, of Kentucky. It does not. 
Mr. Burrerwortu. I agree with my friend in the general propo- | 
sition. 
Mr. Brecxrnrinesr, of Kentucky. I was saying, Mr. Chairman, that 
this has gone a step farther. Heretofore we only made the District 
pay one-half of the cost of the park, not for its management. It has 
no jurisdiction over the management, and hence it is manifestly unjust 
to the District to make it pay one-half of the expenditure to carry on 
an enterprise over which it has no control, and it would give to the 
District of Columbia a basis for a claim hereafter for a joint manage- 
ment, which I do not think ought to be given and which certainly 
was not contemplated, in my judgment, in the original act. But as I 
