Mr. RATHBUN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Even if you do not get the $50,000 additional? Mr. RATHBUN. That is a point which I have brought out in a memorandum I have with me.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you think there is as much demand now for mounting and installing certain of these exhibits as there was a year ago I mean public demand?

Mr. RATHBUN. The public demand is increasing, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you think it is as insistent upon this work being done now as a year ago?

Mr. RATHBUN. I should say it was more insistent. Mr. Chairman, this matter is quite fully, though briefly, explained in my memorandum, which I beg permission to read.

The additional $50,000 requested in this connection is desired for a definite general purpose the preparation for the public halls of certain exhibits which are difficult to construct or put in shape, require expert services, and if left to the regular staff will require years to complete. This amount would be needed for only one year, but for perhaps two years longer a lesser special amount would be desirable. This request is made on behalf of the public solely, and has no reference to the scientific or other technical advancement of the museum.

The exhibits referred to are such as require to be made up by adepts, persons who have been schooled and trained to this difficult kind of work. It is slow work, and therefore relatively expensive work, and can only be hastened by bringing a large number of men into service at one time. The work could all be done in Washington, if a sufficient number of men could be brought here, but it would undoubtedly have to be divided and a considerable proportion let by contract, in New York and perhaps one or two other places.

The exhibits in question are mainly groups of large mammals and birds and of North American ethnology, skeletons of large living animals, and also of the great fossil mammals and reptiles from the western part of this country. The material for this purpose is already in the Museum.

It is quite impossible to itemize this special amount, in view of the fact that the work would be done in different ways. Persons hired to engage in it would be employed only for the length of time their special allotment would last. The relative cost will be high, but the results would justify the expenditure. For a group of mammals of any considerable size $5,000 would be a moderate cost, and if the animals be large the cost of a group containing three to five specimens would amount to $6,000 and $8,000, and in exceptional cases might reach $10,000. It is needless to state that any such groups are important features in a museum exhibit. Single specimens and the fossil vertebrates, of which the Museum has striking examples, would cost much less.

As before stated, this plea is made on behalf of the public, which will expect to see something unusual in the new large building.

WATCHMEN.

Mr. RATHBUN. Now, Mr. Chairman, there is one other matter that I would like to bring to your attention. We are embarrassed a great deal by the question of salaries; I do not mean individual salaries, but the salaries attaching to certain grades. I spoke to you a year ago about the watchmen.

The CHAIRMAN. What do you pay the watchmen?

Mr. RATHBUN. $720 a year.

The CHAIRMAN. That is the same salary that the watchmen in all the other departments get?

Mr. RATHBUN. I think, sir, that steps have been taken looking toward increasing their pay. Mr. Ravenel has had that matter under consideration.

The CHAIRMAN. Where?

Mr. RAVENEL. It is included in the recommendation for the reclassification of the Government service.

Mr. SMITH. It never has been allowed in any department?

Mr. RAVENEL. Not that I know of. I think we require a little more of our watchmen than is required in other places. Our watchmen are on duty in the exhibition halls and have to be well dressedthat is, in uniform-as they come constantly in contact with the public. We filled our vacancies for some time from the penitentiary guard rolls, where they get $70 per month or $840 per year, but we only held them a year or so, when they arranged to get transferred back to the penitentiary nearest their homes because of the higher pay. I think we do require rather a different class of watchmen than is required elsewhere, and I think their expenses are a little more, because of the fact that they are stationed in the exhibition halls.

The CHAIRMAN. They are not watchmen?

Mr. RAVENEL. Yes, sir. They are guards also. They are stationed at the doors and various points in the building looking out for the exhibits. They work every day in the year, except the 30 days granted by law, and are on duty eight hours a day. We have three shifts: One from 8.30 a. m. to 4.30 p. m., one from 4.30 p. m. to 12.30 a. m., and one from 12.30 a. m. to 8.30 a. m.

Mr. SMITH. The great proportion of the watchmen are off on Sunday?

Mr. RAVENEL. Our watchmen were off seven Sundays each in last year.

Mr. SMITH. I went through the new Museum on one Sunday since I have come back: the captain of the watch very kindly escorted me and my friends through, and there were not any number of watchmen in the building?

Mr. RAVENEL. No, sir; not any number. We only have 46 to 47 watchmen for the three watches, and they are distributed through three buildings. In the new building the exhibition halls would be the only place where they would be. If you went in the art gallery, you saw two men there.

The CHAIRMAN. If we were to allow this increase of $50,000, would any part go to the increase of the salaries of the employees?

Mr. RATHBUN. No, sir; but the total amount of this increase is very small.

The CHAIRMAN. You are not estimating for any increase in salaries? Mr. RATHBUN. No, sir; we can not afford, without more money, to give them the increase they ask. We desire to give them $5 a month additional.

Mr. SMITH. When did you get the last increase in salaries?
Mr. RATHBUN. For the watchmen?

Mr. SMITH. Not for the watchmen, but the last increase in salaries? Mr. RATHBUN. The laborers were paid $40 per month and they were increased to $50.

Mr. SMITH. When was that?

Mr. RAVENEL. About three years ago. Half of our watchmen at that time were only paid $55 per month, and we put them all on the same basis of $60.

Mr. RATHBUN. I think it was three or four years ago. We made a special plea before this committee and the laborers were raised from $40 to $50 a month and half the watchmen from $55 to $60 a month. Mr. SMITH. I remember it.

BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is: "For purchase of books, pamphlets, and periodicals for reference, including payment in advance for subscriptions."

Mr. RATHBUN. That is really a much more important item than it looks to be. I do not wish to take the chairman's time, but I have prepared a short argument additional to that which appears in the estimate.

The CHAIRMAN. What kind of books and pamphlets do you purchase?

Mr. RATHBUN. We purchase books of reference.

The inadequacy of the sum allowed for the purchase of books has been frequently discussed before this committee. In the note accompanying this estimate the requirement has been concisely stated. The Museum would not seek renown in the possession of a certain number of books, be it 50,000 or 500,000. The Museum is not a library and the books are to it merely tools, needful for the conduct of its operations, just the same as microscopes, the heating and ventilating plant, the carpenter shop, and the paint shop.

The relations of the Museum to the Library of Congress are as close as are those of Congress itself. The Library of Congress often purchases books desired by the Museum, if they may also serve a wider purpose. There are also the libraries at the Army Medical Museum, the Department of Agriculture, the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Fisheries, on all of which the Museum draws. But there is a class of books relating to the several branches of the Museum, and indispensable for the study and classification of its collections, which are not acquired by other Government libraries, and which the present appropriation does not permit of being purchased. The increase requested is very small in amount, but it would mean a great deal in the advancement of the usefulness of the Museum.

They are reference books, they are books which relate to the material in the Museum which we can not get elsewhere in the city. There is no popular interest attached to the library at all. That side is completely ignored.

REPAIRS TO BUILDINGS.

The CHAIRMAN. There is no increase in the next item, $15,000 for repairs to buildings, shops, and sheds?

Mr. RATHBUN. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to know on what buildings you are spending the $15,000?

Mr. RATHBUN. If you will please allow me, I will explain the matter very briefly. The title of this item and also its text is not as broad as

The

was intended by Congress or as accepted by the Treasury Department. It does not relate merely to a hole in the roof or to a damaged wall inside or outside. Of course that is its primary object, but there are other items of wall construction which have to be covered. item evidently arose originally from a Treasury ruling, but that was before my time. The matter has been discussed before this committee. The rebuilding of the roof was done without any increase in the appropriation from what was saved from year to year, and the same is true of the filling in of the openings in the walls for isolating the great halls of the old building, the openings which made the building a fire trap. Ten years ago if a fire had obtained headway in any part of the old building only a miracle could have prevented it from sweeping through the 23 acres and destroying material worth one or two million dollars. We surrendered the rented buildings on the south side of B Street a year and a half ago. Special provision had to be made for some material taken out of the old buildings, and a partition had to be built. We could not build that out of the appropriation for the preservation of collections. It had to be built under this appropriation.

The CHAIRMAN. How much of this amount was expended last year in the new building?

Mr. RATHBUN. In the new building there were certain walls put in, which had no reference to the construction of the building, for the mounting of specimens which will go on the walls.

Mr. SMITH. Were the walls for the gallery of art paid for out of this appropriation?

Mr. RATHBUN. That was done the year before.

Mr. SMITH. Under this head?

Mr. RATHBUN. No, sir; under furniture and fixtures. They are wooden walls. As a matter of fact, judgment has occasionally to be exercised and sometimes it is not our judgment, but the judgment of the Treasury.

All of the Museum appropriations together are for one purpose, as I understand it, and their separation into items is in order that Congress may fix definitely the sums which may be expended for each subject. To my mind, a single appropriation with such limitations as are secured through the separate items would save bookkeeping and result in more economical methods of administration.

The CHAIRMAN. Carried to its logical conclusion would it not be more economical simply to appropriate a billion dollars every year for the executive departments to carry on the administrative affairs? Mr. RATHBUN. You misunderstand me. With the limitations definitely stated in the bill, it would save in bookkeeping. In the new building the work done under this appropriation has been as follows: The great alcoholic storage in the basement, measuring 165 feet long, 52 feet wide, and 18 feet high, was divided into four compartments before it was fitted with furniture. The construction is one that any museum in the world would envy. It is two stories high. There is one story above this [indicating on photograph). The compartment is absolutely fireproof. That is one of the matters which came under this item.

Mr. SMITH. They were doing an immense amount of painting when I was down there. Was that done out of the repair fund?

Mr. RATHBUN. No, sir; that is being done under a specific appropriation.

Mr. SMITH. It is not done out of this item?

Mr. RATHBUN. No, sir; under last year's deficiency.

NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK.

The CHAIRMAN. Your appropriation this year is $100,000, and you estimate for next year $115,000?

Mr. BAKER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. You also recommend that the language, "one half of which sum shall be paid from the revenues of the District of Columbia and the other half from the Treasury of the United States," be stricken out?

Mr. BAKER. That has not been any recommendation of the Smithsonian. It is simply the usual wording.

The CHAIRMAN. It does not make any difference whose recommendation it is, it will not be accepted.

Mr. BAKER. I presume not; it never is.

BUILDING FOR HEATING PLANT, AND BLACKSMITH AND CARPENTER SHOPS.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the necessity for this increase of $15,000? We gave you an increase of $5,000 last year.

Mr. BAKER. I want to show you the condition in the park, which is really very serious [exhibiting photograph].

The principal buildings of the National Zoological Park, seven in number, are all heated from a central plant located in a temporary frame building used as a blacksmith and carpenter shop. Owing to this location there is always more or less combustible material quite near the furnaces, and if a conflagration should start the entire building would almost certainly be consumed before assistance could arrive. The danger of its destruction is therefore very considerable. If this occurred during severe weather, it would be difficult to heat the houses and there would be great suffering and consequent loss of animals.

The blacksmith and carpenter shop is a necessary adjunct to the park, as all repairs and most of the new work are done there. Such work is often urgent and particular and it would not be practicable to have it done outside the park.

The beginning of the heating plant was the boiler of a small steam engine necessary to drive machinery, and it has now been extended so that it is of considerable importance. A central plant is much more economical and effective than separate furnaces established in the various houses.

I doubt if we can construct a proper building there for the carpenter and blacksmith shop and for the heating plant, which would be fireproof, for less than $15,000. It seems to me that is a reasonable estimate. Then, it would be of very simple construction.

The CHAIRMAN. If you cleaned up the outside of the plant, judging from this photograph, there would not be so much danger from fire; clean up the rubbish.

Mr. BAKER. That is mostly ironwork lying around there. It looks disorderly, but we can not help that.

73879-s c-11——16