APPENDIX III.

REPORT ON THE OPERATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1897.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report upon the operations of the Bureau of International Exchanges for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897:

The number of packages received from all sources for distribution during the year was 81,162, or 7,716 less than during the preceding year, although the territory reached by exchanges emanating from the Smithsonian Institution was increased by the addition of 2,527 names of institutions, libraries, and individuals in other countries than the United States, while the domestic list was increased by 567. The aggregate weight of packages handled was 247,444 pounds.

By reference to previous reports it will be noticed that three or four boxes of United States Congressional publications have been forwarded to each of the foreign national libraries every year, while but two boxes were forwarded during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897. One more box to each of the fifty recipients would have made the total number of packages transmitted by the Institution equal to that of the previous year. It is also worthy of note that while the number of packages was less than during the preceding year, the number of boxes shipped abroad was nearly one-fourth greater than during the previous year. The difference is accounted for by the fact that the number of exchange packages reported as having been received during the fiscal year were those that had been delivered to the Institution between July 1, 1896, and June 30, 1897, while the cases shipped during the same period contained many tons of exchanges that had been delivered principally from United States Government Departments and Bureaus during the last week of the previous fiscal year, and which could not be forwarded during the same year in which they were received.

The comparison of exchanges during past years shows that transmissions are exceedingly variable, especially those from abroad, and while during one year thousands of parcels may be received from a single society for distribution in the United States, no more may come from the same society for two or three years, and when there may be several such instances in a single year it is easy to understand that the annual statistical tables must vary to a marked degree.

TABULAR STATEMENT OF THE WORK OF THE BUREAU.

The work of the Bureau is succinctly given in the following table:
Transactions of the Bureau of International Exchanges during the fiscal year 1896–97.

Transactions of the Bureau of International Exchanges, etc.-Continued.

For the purpose of comparison the following table represents the number of packages of exchanges transmitted, and the increase in the number of recipients each year from 1891 to 1897:

The expense of the exchange system is provided for in part by direct appropriation by Congress to the Smithsonian Institution, and in part by the various Executive Departments of the United States Government, which in most instances pay 5 cents per pound for the transportation of their exchanges, both outgoing and incoming. This charge was exacted by the Regents before the United States Government made any appropriation whatever for exchanges, and since appropriations have been made the exchange system has been taxed to such an extent that it has never been possible to relinquish the practice of making this charge, which, during the past year, has realized an income amounting to $3,334.33.

The Congressional appropriation made to the Institution in support of the exchange system for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897, read as follows:

"For expenses of the system of international exchanges between the United States and foreign countries under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, nineteen thousand dollars.”

The following statement represents the receipts and expenditures on account of the system of international exchanges for the year preceding July 1, 1897.

On account of the inadequacy of available resources with which to bear the expense necessary to the forwarding of all exchanges by the most expeditious routes, it has at all times been necessary to obtain free ocean freight when practicable, and while some of the steamship companies have forwarded exchanges as promptly as other freight on which the full rates were paid, several of the lines have only been willing to take exchange cases when there was ample room.

To provide more adequate means with which to defray the expense of forwarding exchanges promptly and by the fastest steamers, $2,000 was added to the appropriation for 1896-97. Of this amount $1,283.53 was directly expended in the improvement of freight facilities and the balance for the necessary increase in the cost of packing boxes and postage.

CORRESPONDENTS.

The publication of a revised foreign exchange list authorized by the Secretary in March, 1895, has been accomplished, and the book is now being sent to societies and libraries in the United States, to which it will be of assistance in locating the names of all institutions outside of the United States which have received packages through the exchange system. This list, corrected to July 1, 1897, contains the names of 9,414 institutions, libraries, and societies, but owing to the frequent change in the addresses of individuals, the names of persons, with few exceptions, have not been included in this list, although the same minute ledger account of the interchange of publications is kept with individuals as with institutions.

There are now a total of 28,008 names on the records of the exchange bureau, an excess of 3,094 over the preceding year; 21,427 of this number being foreign and 6,581 domestic.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS.

The following table shows that during the past year 10,694 parcels have been received through the exchange service and delivered to the various Departments of the United States Government, while 30,008 packages have been received from Gov

eriment Impartments and bureaus and sent abroad. The new Library of Congress beng now completed, the accumulations of valuable books that for years have a berz male accessible for want of sufficient room, will soon be catalogued and placed up the shelves.

The extent to which exchanges have been effected by the bureaus of the United States Government during the year is shown in the following table:

Since July 1, 1896, a new feature has been adopted in the system of records of the Exchange Bureau, showing the number of packages exchanged between the United States and each of the other countries, thus supplying information that has not heretofore been obtainable without a tedious tabulation of each year's transactions. SM 974

Statement of packages transmitted through the Smithsonian Exchange Service during the

During the past year the exchange of parliamentary documents with Mexico has
been resumed, and twenty cases that had accumulated were forwarded on Decem-
ber 29, 1896. Hereafter each case as completed will be transmitted promptly.

The exchange of public documents with Japan has also been renewed during the