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FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 1505 
aisles through the building. This is in addition to the 15,000 feet for the Bureau of 
Ethnology, and is less than three times what was assigned to the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution and the National Museum at the Philadelphia and New Orleans exhibitions. 
At the Fishery Exhibition in 1883 nearly half this amount of space was occupied by 
the display of the American fisheries alone, and the success of the installation on 
this occasion was largely due to the fact that the exhibits were not unduly crowded 
together. 
The total amount of money required for the Smithsonian and the Museum exhibits, 
but exclusive of the special display of the Bureau of Ethnology, I estimate at 
$425,000, and in making this estimate I have taken into consideration the probable 
cost of each department of the work, and have arrived at the total by adding these 
amounts together. I do not know that a detailed statement is desired, but one can be 
supplied as soon as it is called for. 
These estimates are based not only on the experience of the Museum at Philadel- 
phia, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and other American fairs, but also at 
the Fishery Exhibitions in Berlin and London, which, though not nominally con- 
nected with the Smithsonian Institution, were practically so, the Commissioner of 
Fisheries being at that time the Secretary of this Institution, and the officer in imme- 
diate charge its present assistant secretary, while very many of the workers were 
temporarily transferred from the Museum staff. 
As I have already indicated, the cost of the earlier exhibitions was $3.50 to $5 per 
foot of floor space, but there are two important considerations which forbid us to 
expect that equally satisfactory results can now be accomplished at a proportionate 
cost. The first of these is the very obvious one of an enhanced scale of general 
prices in all directions, especially in that of labor. The second, that most of these 
exhibitions had been looked for long in advance and prepared with deliberate econ- 
omy, while in the present case, if preparation could be begun to-morrow, the time 
would still be too short, and it will consequently be impossible to avoid such partial 
waste as always accompanies hurried action. 
In conclusion, I desire to say that participation in such exhibitions is one of the 
greatest obstacles to the development of the National Museum and inflicts immediate 
injury to its collections far greater than the mere damage of transportation to and 
fro. It is to be hoped, then, that Congress, in estimating the cost, will keep in mind 
the importance of replacing the collections in Washington in as favorable condition 
as if the interruption to the work had not occurred. On such occasions the mere 
absence of a large number of the responsible employees and the necessary temporary 
suspension of most of the ordinary activities of the Museum would be nearly as grave 
an injury as the closing of its doors during the whole period. 
For this there is no compensation except in the increase in the collections which 
may result, and this is by no means an unmixed benefit, since many of the objects 
added to the collection at such a time, however effective they may be in a temporary 
exhibition, seem crude and incongruous in a permanent museum. 
Such considerations as these may, it seems to me, be kept prominently in mind in 
making an estimate of the amount required for such a participation in a great exhi- 
bition as may leave the permanent progress of the National Museum unimpaired. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
S. P. Laneiry, Secretary. 
The SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
U. S. Commission or Fish AND FISHERIES, 
Washington, D. C., March 11, 1890. 
Str: In compliance with your request I have the honor to transmit herewith an 
estimate of the cost of preparing, placing, caring for, and returning such an exhibit 
of the fisheries and fishery resources of the United States as should, in my judg- 
ment, be made at the World’s Fair, at Chicago, in 1892. 
H. Doc. 732 95 
