fIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 1485 
Mr. Rogers. I also did the same. 
Mr. BurrerwortH. Does the gentleman from Arkansas offer any 
amendment, or has he any suggestion to make as to the appropriation ? 
Mr. Rogers. No, sir. No amendment is now pending, and I have 
no amendment to offer in that regard. What I have said has been by 
way of putting the Committee on Appropriations upon notice about 
what is going on with reference to improvements in the park, in order 
that it may receive at the hands of subsequent Congresses that atten- 
tion which a great enterprise of that kind so richly merits when the 
Government has embarked in it. 
Mr. Cannon. I hope we can have a vote upon this amendment. I 
would like to go on with the bill. 
Mr. BrecxinripeGr, of Kentucky. I rise to oppose the amendment. 
The CuarrMan. The amendment of the gentleman from Kentucky 
is still pending. 
Mr. Rocers. I moved to strike out the last word and spoke on that. 
Mr. BreckrnripGk, of Kentucky. I rise to oppose the amendment. 
The CuarrMan. The gentleman from Kentucky. 
Mr. Breckinrin@r, of Kentucky. Mr. Chairman, the Smithsonian 
Institution has never in any degree, so far as I know, had any partisan 
color attached to it. It has been a bureau which has been sedulously 
kept by Congress from having any partisan tendency by the mode in 
which the Regents are appointed; and I have no doubt that any inves- 
tigation of that Bureau will be found to result in the ascertainment 
that the management of it has always been in the highest degree cred- 
‘itable to those who have been put in charge. I have not the slightest 
doubt that the present head of that institution.is equal to those dis- 
tinguished gentlemen who have preceded him in that place. 
Now, as to the matter in hand. My friend from Alabama [Mr. 
Herbert] does himself very great injustice when he says that he can 
not draw a distinction between the Rock Creek Park, which is an or- 
dinary park for beauty and amusement, and the Zoological Park, which 
is nothing but an appendage to the Smithsonian Institution, precisely 
as are the grounds around the building. It does not stand upon the 
same footing; is not defended on the same ground. Some of us, among 
them myself, who were warm friends of the Zoological Park, resisted 
and voted against every step which resulted in the establishment of 
the Rock Creek Park; therefore we come back to the original proposi- 
tion. The United States accepted James Smithson’s bequest by estab- 
lishing the Institution, as it was in honor bound to do. 
As a part of the development of that Institution it purchased that 
property for the purpose of preventing the extinction of rare species 
of American animals. It is purely a scientific branch, the practical 
part of it being necessary to carry out scientific investigation. -It 
stands upon the same footing as all other parts of that Institution, 
