1442 - CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
deticiency they will inquire of the needs of these animals to the Amer- 
ican people and resent the action by which this annual and ever- 
increasing expense was incurred. 
In my judgment it is one of the many follies induced by the surplus 
in the Treasury, of which Congress ought to be ashamed. 
[Here the hammer fell. ] 
The question being taken on the amendment of Mr. Stockdale, it 
was rejected. 
February 10, 1891—House. 
Mr. Benzamin A. Entoxr. Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of priv- 
ilege. I send to the Clerk’s desk a resolution addressed to the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, calling upon him for information in regard to 
the expenditure of money in the improvement of the Zoological Park. 
The resolution was read.* 
The Speaker (Mr. T. B. ReEep). What was the date of that resolu- 
tion? 
Mr. Enuor. It was introduced on the 27th day of January. It has 
been referred more than one week, so under the rules it presents a 
question of privilege. I desired this information and have been striv- 
ing for some time to get it, but so far I have been unsuccessful. I 
introduced a resolution preceding this one, which was addressed to the 
Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 
That resolution was referred to the Committee on Expenditures in 
the Interior Department. That committee met and decided to report 
the resolution back to the House, but the report has not yet been made 
to the House. I attempted to bring the matter up as a question of 
privilege on the 27th of January, but the Speaker held that it did not 
present a question of privilege. The chairman of the committee has 
not yet submitted the report. I know not why he has failed to present 
it to the House. I have no criticism to make upon him, but I have 
understood that the reason why the resolution has not been presented 
and acted upon is that it has been supposed that I had some political 
object in view and that I sought to reflect upon some member of the 
opposite political party. 
I desire now to disclaim any such intention or purpose, either in the 
beginning or at any time in the prosecution of this inquiry. I will 
admit that I am as much inclined to indulge in political discussion as 
some of my friends on the other side, but am not altogether a poli- 
tician, and, like the gentleman from Maine [Mr. Boutelle], I some- 
times have a motive which may be called patriotic. This is an inquiry 
which has a patriotic purpose. I want to know how this money which 
we collect from the people of this country is being spent and by what 
authority it has been expended. It was a very strange thing to me, 
in view of the statements made before the Committee on Expenditures 
1See January 27, 1891—House. 
