1680 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
somewhat over $700,000, to which enough has been added since by 
private gifts to bring the amount up to nearly $1,000,000, on which 
first million Congress has authorized the Treasury to pay 6 per cent 
interest. It is to be observed that this high rate of interest is given 
for purposes which, in fact, have caused it to be reexpended upon 
national objects, a considerable portion of it having been in the past 
absorbed in the administration of trusts laid upon it by Congress, and 
insufficiently appropriated for. This interest on the fund is expended 
by the Board of Regents, chiefly through the Secretary, with a quar- 
terly auditing of accounts by the Executive Committee. 
The future prosperity of the Institution seems to depend much upon 
the increase of this original fund, which has lately been considerably 
added to, and which it is believed would be given to still more largely 
by American citizens if the national character of the Institution and 
the true nature of the objects pursued by it were better known. There 
is a widely spread but erroneous impression that its chief function is 
in making collections in natural history. This misconception is per- 
haps due to the fact that the well-known castellated building occupied 
by it, and called by its name, is, owing to the crowded condition of the 
National Museum, largely used as a repository of natural-history 
collections, which, it will be understood from what has preceded, are 
merely incidental to a single side of its multifarious activities, and are 
not an index of the Institution’s real character. 
For the President’s personal information. 
Respectfully submitted. 
S. P. Lanatry, Secretary. 
By Tue Cuier JUSTICE. 
AMENDMENT TO ACT OF ORGANIZATION OF SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
January 15, 1894—House. 
Mr. Davin B. Cunperrson introduced bill (E.. 5219): 
That ‘‘An act to establish the Smithsonian Institution for the increase and diffu- 
sion of knowledge among men,’’ approved August 10, 1846, Revised Statutes, title 73, 
be, and the same is hereby, amended in section 5579 of said act, by striking out the 
words, ‘‘the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, 
the Secretary of the Navy, the Postmaster-General, the Attorney-General, the Com- 
missioner of the Patent Office, and the governor of the District of Columbia, and 
such other persons as they may elect honorary members,”’ and inserting the words, 
‘‘the heads of the Executive Departments,’’ so that the section will read: 
‘Suc. 5579. The President, the Vice-President, the Chief Justice, and the heads’ 
of the Executive Departments are hereby constituted an establishment by the name 
of the ‘Smithsonian Institution’ for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 
men; and by that name shall be known and have perpetual succession, with the 
powers, limitations, and restrictions hereinafter contained, and no other.” 
That section 5591 of the Revised Statutes be amended by the addition of these 
words: ‘‘ But this shall not operate as a limitation on the power of the Smithsonian 
