[Smithsonian Institution appropriations hearings]

DICKINSON, THOMAS W. HARRISON (CEASED TO BE A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 15, 1922. SENTATIVES). By the distribution of this material which has accumulated it has been possible to reduce somewhat the cost of the service, although the cost of carrying on the service is still as far as freight and other large items are concerned.-. The institution estimated the cost of carrying the exchanges for 1924 at $43,000, but the budget office reduced it to.

40,000; but given the circumstances we are not disposed to quarrel with this cut. There are 44 sets of this, and then 95 sets of government publications are exchanged to different parts of the world. There is also an exchange of scientific intelligence between colleges and universities in all parts of the country with foreign countries.

I asked one of the men who came here from Poland, "What makes a congressional record?" For example, we are working on the ethnology and archeology of this country, and my particular work has been on the excavation and repair of ruins in Mesa Verde National Park. This is the room where we found the pipes right in that shrine there in the floor 20 feet deep and here are the foundations of the tower and here you have embodied the worship that these people had.

The tower for the worship of the sun, which is always male, and the shrine for the worship of the earth.

INDEPENDENT OFFICES APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 163

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INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

This credit is not sufficient for the work and we have had to supplement it. It appears that the sun does not radiate a constant amount of heat and light from day to day, but there are fluctuations, and those fluctuations are of a nature that affects the temperature, rainfall, and cloud cover of the world. Those results are telegraphed to Buenos Aires every day and they actually use those results there for forecasting purposes.

The two stations support each other, so that the fluctuations are displayed in duplicate, so that. We have a way to measure the heat of the sun as a whole, and also as it is separated in the spectrum. It is not sufficient to measure the whole, because the different colored rays are affected differently by atmospheric conditions.

Then, making observations in the morning when the sun shines through a long thickness of air, and later as the thickness increases less, we It is this that we speak of as the heat fluctuation of the sun, or the heat fluctuation as would be received on the moon, for example. Mount Wilson, California, I had a special bolometer apparatus so sensitive that one hundred millionths of a degree could be measured.

Mount Wilson Observatory, but in daily practice we make measurements up to a millionth of a degree.

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NATIONAL MUSEUM

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PRESERVATION, EXHIBITION, AND INCREASING OF COLLECTIONS

The extra $10,000 was requested for the purpose of obtaining additional specimens to fill the gaps in our collections. A natural history collection is simply a classified collection of biological standards used by the scientific staff to identify specimens. The Museum is also visited by many foreign experts with the aim of consulting our type of collection.

We have depended to a very great extent for the increase of our collections on the results of Government expeditions and expeditions sent out by corporations and private individuals. Except in cases where the Institution sends out the expeditions, they are not sent out for the specific purpose of filling. They are handing over a lot of valuable material to us, but the gaps are still there.

We need samples that are getting rarer every year and harder and harder to get. As an illustration of what I mean, I will say that six months ago we were offered a copper Eskimo collection, probably the last to be secured. He reported that since the coming of the white man the natives had practically ceased to make the things they used before, and that a collection of the kind could probably never be made again.

For example, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh began excavating a dinosaur national monument and offered to turn it over to us, but the museum could not consider it, even though we need an example of this particular animal because it would cost five to ten thousand dollars to complete the excavation and would probably require six months time. I would like to draw attention to one more item that was submitted to the budget presidency, namely the estimate for ice. Eleven years ago we installed an ice machine and in that period we have saved the government over $11,000 by making our own ice.

That machine cost only $2,650 and was paid for from a balance of collections preservation appropriations for 1910. That was carefully calculated based on the wholesale price of ice cream for eleven years, from 1911 to 1922. The factory broke down last summer. , and the various agencies had to buy ice cream on the open market.

170 [NDEPENDENT OFFICES APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924

171 but no bids were received so we finally decided to have the work But no bids were received so we finally decided to have the work done by FullerConstruction Co. at a price plus 10 per cent, as they had done a very satisfactory job in the same way before. According to the terms of the arrangement, it is assumed that the scaffolding will be of no value to us, that the cost of the usable material will be deducted from the bill.

POSTAGE STAMPS AND POSTAL CARDS

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

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However, the credit for that building was placed in the items of the Smithsonian, and that was put forward by the House committee for the construction of the National Museum. The original amendment was introduced in the Senate and subsequently approved by the House, authorizing the preparation of plans; but this second part there, "authorizing and enabling the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to erect a building," was, I believe, made in the House, and contained the appropriations for carrying out what had already been authorized. I now bring it to the attention of the committee, because we are dealing with a condition.

Obviously we would not have the authority here, nor would we be justified, to announce this in Parliament; But if it was introduced in the Senate and the Senate approved it, then we could refer it back. That's what I wanted to say, just like in the case of the Freer Building.

178 INDEPENDENT OFFICES APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924

They seem to have found nothing that will poison them; that is to say, the sea water soon carries the poison out of solution, and weakens it to such an extent that they can proceed. Is there the same demand for the publications of the American Bureau of Ethnology as there is for the other publications. Chairman, I would like to say a word about the publications of the Bureau of Ethnology.

Every year we have a report and we have several bulletins, all covering the work of the bureau, which are distributed free as far as they go, and last year we published the thirty-fifth. La Flesche on the Osage tribe of Indians, which is actually a ritual, a bulletin on the early history of the Creek Indians and neighboring tribes (491 pages, 10 plates), and another on the music of the Piutes. Now, publication is so essential to us that we really ought to have the old appropriation of $21,000.

Sargent of Los Angeles is willing to pay for plates of this work, but I cannot publish it because I have no money. The thirty-fourth annual report was forwarded to the Public Printing Office in March; I mean, it was released for publication in March of this year. The Smithsonian doesn't take care of its preparation, etc., but I think DoctorJamieson and DoctorLearned are here to take care of it.

This is carried over to our appropriation under the "American Historical Association" for the latter part of these assessments.

TXITED STATES TARIFF COMMISSION

BETHUNE, SECRETARY