ley and Central States, as extensive and creditable a display of their specialties as the brief time and limited funds at their command would permit (the exposition being announced to open in Cincinnati on the fourth of July), this Bureau, under instructions from Mr. Marcellus Gardner, your representative in charge of the Department's exhibit, prepared and forwarded in the latter part of June a varied assortment of articles from its museum, books from its library, and statistical charts compiled from the most recent information in its possession. Dr. A. P. Bogue, a clerk in this Bureau, who had served in connection with the Bureau's exhibits at the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876 and the New Orleans Cotton Centennial in 1884-85, was detailed for similar duty under Mr. Gardner in Cincinnati. For general distribution at this exposition a little eight-page" folder" was compiled by Mr. John W. Holcombe, Chief Clerk of the Bureau, which briefly set forth the purpose, history, and organization of the Office, the number and character of its publications, and the part it had taken in previous exhibitions, native and foreign. This leaflet describes the exhibit at Cincinnati as follows: "The effort of the Bureau of Education is confined strictly to setting forth its own organization, methods of doing business, and the results of its labors. Several specimen file-cases, index books, and letter-press books indicate the system of managing the records and correspondence, while a few large cards display selected statistical tables. A complete set of the publications of the Bureau is shown in thirty-three bound volumes, together with samples of reports, circulars, and bulletins, in the cloth or paper covers in which they are distributed. In six cases taken from the thirty in the museum is placed a selected display, which is intended to indicate the character and variety of the Bureau's collections. From the library is sent a representation of general educational literature; of educational reports of States, cities, and institutions, bound or filed in boxes; and of foreign educational literature and reports. The diplomas won at previous expositions, and a few selected pictures, complete the exhibit." ESTIMATES FOR 1890-91. I have repeated the estimates made last year for the service of the Office.1 At the meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association, March, 1889, a committee appointed to inquire into the needs of the Bureau of Education and the means necessary to increase its efficiency made the following report: "The special committee to whom was referred the need of legislation to increase the efficiency and usefulness of the Bureau of Education, beg leave to submit the following report: "The act of Congress creating the Bureau as an independent Department of Education, and intrusting its management to a Commissioner with a salary of four thousand dollars, was passed March 2, 1857. "In 1869 a strong opposition to the new Department of Education manifested it With respect to the estimate for education in Alaska, I have added to the estimate previously submitted the amount usually appropriated for the support of industrial schools for Indians in that Territory, since it is proposed to transfer the support and supervision of these schools to this Bureau. QUARTERS FOR THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION. In my last Report I stated the reasons why the transfer of this Office to the Pension building, as required by the Act of Congress of March 3, 1887, would be injurious to its work, its collections, and its usefulness. Time has only confirmed the opinions I then expressed. I am glad that this Act has been repealed, and that the Office will be allowed to remain in its present quarters. The Office is under great obligations to you for the steps you took to prevent the proposed change, and I feel that the repeal of this legislation is mainly due to your personal efforts, as expressed in your letter self, in Congress, and the act creating it was so amended as to reduce the Department to the subordinate position of an 'Office of Education,' in the Department of the Interior, and to make the management of the Office, by the Commissioner, 'subject to the direction of the Secretary of the Interior,' and the annual salary of the Commissioner was reduced to three thousand dollars. "Under those unwise limitations the Bureau of Education has been conducted for nearly twenty years, and the fact that it has been able to render such valuable service to the cause of education is due largely to the fidelity and self-sacrificing spirit of the men who have filled the position of Commissioner. Few realize the embarrassments which have beset the duties of the Office, and fewer know how greatly its possible efficiency has been lessened by the lack of official appreciation and adequate pecuniary support. "But in spite of all limitations and embarrassments the Bureau of Education has fully justified the wisdom of its creation. Its great value as an educational agency of the General Government is no longer questioned by anyone who knows its history and work. It has not only furnished needed assistance to those intrusted with the organization and conduct of schools and school systems, but it has from time to time responded to the call of Congress itself for valuable information on school affairs. "It is believed that the time has now come when the Bureau of Education should be restored to its original position as an independent Department, and its management be again intrusted to the Commissioner in charge. The salary of the Commissioner should be increased to not less than five thousand dollars-the present salary of the Commissioner of Labor, and the recent salary of the Commissioner of Agriculture. The position of the Commissioner of Education never can assume its proper dignity at the seat of government so long as the Commissioner is obliged to live on the present salary, and it is certainly too much to ask the Commissioner to supplement this salary by his private means. "The Department of Education should receive an annual appropriation sufficient for the efficient discharge of the important duties intrusted to it, and all its reports, circulars, and other information respecting educational progress should be promptly published and distributed. The practical value of the successive Annual Reports of the Bureau has been greatly lessened by their tardy issue and circulation. "It is recommended that a committee be appointed by this body to memorialize Congress to these ends, and, if possible, secure necessary legislation. "It is also suggested that this committee make an effort to secure such supervision of the education schedules in the next decennial census by the Commissioner of Education as will result in more accurate and valuable statistics in this department." of July 30, 1888, which I insert here for the purpose of putting upon record the reasons against such a change as was contemplated in the Act of March 3, 1887: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, MY DEAR SIR: I observe by the sundry civil bill, as it has been reported by the Committee on Appropriations to the Senate, the only repeal of the act of March 3, 1887, which required the removal of the General Land Office, Bureau of Railroads, and Bureau of Education to the Pension building, provided for is so much as relates to the Land Office. I do most sincerely think it will be a serious injury to the Educational Bureau and also to the Pension Bureau to compel the removal of the former into the Pension building. It can not but practically strangle the Bureau of Education for a considerable period at least, and I can not see but that it must seriously interfere with its usefulness so long as it shall remain there. There are now about forty-three clerks and people employed in the Bureau of Education, and they have a large collection of books, models, educational appliances, and bric-a-brac of various character and all contributary to enlightenment. I have visited the Pension building and can not see how this can be stored, except in great part in the fourth story. Practically, it becomes when placed there unavailable for use. The appropriation in the legislative, executive, and judicial bill on account of the Bureau of Education is, all together, $50,920. The rent of the building to be saved by this change is $4,000. In order to save this sum of $4,000 of rent, I do not hesitate to say that this action will waste $25,000 of the appropriation for the Bureau. I have heard the idea expressed in casual conversation that the Bureau of Education was not an instrumentality of especial value, and I fear that this idea has had something to do with the willingness to cripple it by this removal. I do not concur at all in the sentiment; but if the sentiment is to have any influence, and especially under the plea of economy, it should take an effective direction to accomplish the latter end; and this would require that, in case of this removal being insisted upon, a great part of the force should be discharged and the appropriation made for the conduct of the Bureau diminished. I do not doubt that it could be diminished one-half, upon the theory of the removal, and as effective work be accomplished as if the same number of officers and employés shall be retained now provided for, because they can not work to advantage in such quarters as can be assigned in the Pension Bureau. The legislative bill has made provision for the rent of the building now occupied by the Bureau of Education only until the 1st of December next, appropriating $1,667 for the purpose, one-third of the annual rental. The time is short and the pressure upon Congress, and especially upon you, my dear sir, I recognize to be very great at this juncture. Is it not the part of wisdom to continue that Bureau where it is for the remainder of this fiscal year, which will involve but $2,333 more (perhaps less than the cost of its removal), and review this subject at the next session with more attention than can now be allowed to it? If it be possible for yourself, or some member of the committee, to give an hour or an hour and a half to a personal examination of the circumstances, I feel convinced you will recognize by a survey of the buildings and the property involved the imperative urgency and the wisdom of the suggestion I venture to make. The provision for the post-office within the area of the Pension building will make that building as thoroughly occupied as almost any Government building in the city, perhaps quite as much. I have the honor to be, my dear Mr. Chairman, Very respectfully, your obedient servant, HON. WILLIAM B. ALLISON, Chairman Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate. WM. F. VILAS, Secretary. Opinion of the National Educational Association. In connection with this subject, I would respectfully call your attention to the views of the National Educational Association of the United States, as expressed in the following memorial, adopted at the session in San Francisco, Cal., July 17-20, 1888. Whereas, The Bureau of Education at Washington City has been the means of rendering efficient service in the cause of popular education in the United States, and of collecting the largest educational library in the world, as well as one of the most complete pedagogical museums; and Whereas, Those collections are now preserved in rented rooms wholly inadequate to meet the growing de mands of the Bureau; therefore, be it Resolved, That in order still to further the work for which the Bureau was organized, this body, representing all of the States and Territories, here assembled, does most respectfully petition the Congress of the United States to erect a suitable building to be used exclusively for the benefit of the Bureau of Education. Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be forwarded to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, with a request that the same may be laid before the bodies over which they respectively preside. The National Educational Association was organized in 1857, by leading teachers from all sections of the country, and includes in its membership the most influential educators of the Union. It now represents over three hundred thousand teachers and persons interested in the public schools and higher education. Its wishes are certainly entitled to respectful consideration, as the interest it represents is of the highest importance to the public welfare. A Suitable Building for the Bureau. The experience of many years guides us to a correct determination as to the character of the quarters in which an Office like this Bureau can be located to the best advantage. Such quarters should comprise : (1) A basement story, containing two large rooms for the storage of the publications of the Bureau, and several smaller rooms for the fuel, the heating apparatus, packing of documents for the mail, carpenter's shop, etc. (2) A principal story, containing, in front, the main entrance to the building, and rooms for the Commissioner, chief clerk, stenographers, mail clerks, records and files, and the reception of visitors, and opening in the rear into two much larger rooms, in which the library and the museum should be kept; these two rooms should be equal in height to two stories of the front. (3) A second story, containing rooms for clerical and statistical work; from the rearmost of these the galleries in the library and museum halls might be entered. The most convenient form for this building would be three sides of a parallelogram, where the free sides would project rearward and contain the large rooms just described, and the third side would constitute the front, contain the smaller rooms mentioned, and unite the other sides structurally and conveniently. The large rooms for the museum and the library should be made substantially like the rooms used for those purposes in the building recently erected for the Army Medical Museum and Library; the smaller rooms should not exceed in area eighteen by twenty-four feet and should have their longer sides facing the outside of the building; the clear height of the basement need not be more than ten feet, of the first story fifteen feet, and of the second story fourteen feet. If the basement level is fixed at six feet below that of the street, the walls including cornices need not be more than forty feet high. The halls for the library and the museum should each have an area of about three thousand feet; they could be sufficiently separated from each other on their inner flanks by a paved court or passage about ten feet wide. The front part of the building above the basement could conveniently contain ten rooms on each of its two stories, with convenient halls and stairways; and the ground covered by such a front need not be more than sixty five hundred square feet. Such a building could be conven⚫ iently and economically constructed on a lot one hundred and seventyfive by one hundred and twenty-five feet, which would allow sufficient space for air, light, cartways, etc. The present quarters of the Bureau, which are barely sufficient for its present needs, occupy a lot about sixty by fifty feet, and the building is about sixty-five feet high above the sidewalk. If the front of the suggested building were constructed of brick, with iron beams and brick floors, and if the wings above the basement were constructed mainly of brick piers with iron frames and glass panels, it need not cost more than sixty thousand dollars; the rent paid for its present quarters is four per cent. on seventy-two thousand dollars. EXPENDITURE OF THE BUREAU'S FUND FOR PRINTING. I also beg to call your attention to the manner in which the money allotted by the Interior Department for the printing of this Office has been expended. For the fiscal year 1886-87, out of the sum of $340,000 appropriated by Congress for the printing of the Interior Department, the sum of $21,405.42 was allotted to the Bureau of Education by the Secretary of the Interior. Of this amount, so allotted, $15,007.28 was expended for the printing of this Office up to June 30, 1887, leaving a balance of $6,398.14 in favor of the Bureau. Upon a statement of these facts presented to him November 2, 1887, the First Comptroller of the Treasury decided, in a letter of the same date, that work ordered by the Office, and approved by the First Assistant Secretary in May, could and should be paid for out of the appropriation for 1886-87, though not actually performed until after June 30, 1887. In like manner, the allotment of this Office for 1887-88, made by the Secretary of the Interior, was $18,681.54, and on June 30, 1888, but |