Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/571

Rh when the affairs of the institution maybe discussed fully and freely. A committee that had been appointed to consider the powers and duties of the executive committee did not make a final report, but it was the general opinion that this committee should have regular and stated meetings. Dr. A. Graham Bell introduced a series of resolutions and moved that they be referred to the committee appointed to consider the powers of the executive committee. They will be reported on and fully discussed at the meeting in December. The resolutions are as follows:

The secretary shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the board of regents, shall appoint the heads of the various bureaus supported by congress under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution to wit the National Museum, the Bureau of American Ethnology, The National Zoological Park, the Bureau of International Exchanges, and the Astrophysical Observatory.

The secretary shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen in these offices during the intervals between meetings of the board, by granting commissions which shall expire at the next meeting of the board of regents.

The head of each bureau shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the secretary, shall appoint the subordinates in the bureau under his charge.

The heads of the bureaus shall be termed directors; and the board of regents hereby creates the offices of director of the National Museum, director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, director of the National Zoological Park, director of the Bureau of International Exchanges, and director of the Astrophysical Observatory, and instructs the secretary to fill these offices by temporary appointment to expire at the next meeting of the board, when nominations shall be presented for confirmation by the board.

It will thus be seen that the entire question of the organization of the Smithsonian Institution and its relations to the government bureaus is under consideration by the regents. At the meeting two other matters of general interest were discussed. Congress has made an appropriation of three and a half million dollars foi a new building for the U. S. National Museum, the construction of which has been placed in the hands of Mr. Bernard R. Green. The secretary, with the advice and consent of the chancellor and the chairman of the executive committee was designated to cooperate with Mr. Green.

Owing to the need of moving the body of James Smith son from the grave in which it rests at Genoa, it was proposed last year by Dr. Bell that the remains be brought to this country, where congress would doubtless erect over them a suitable monument in the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution. This suggestion was not adopted at the time, but Dr. Bell has now offered to have the remains removed at his expense, which offer the regents will doubtless be glad to accept.

appropriation for the United States Department of Agriculture provided by the recent session of congress covers a total of practically six million dollars, an increase over that for the current year of $769,140, including an emergency appropriation of a half a million dollars. The increased funds are for the most part to enable an extension of the work of the department along its present lines, rather than to take up new special features. The largest increases are for the Bureaus of Animal Industry, Plant Industry, Forestry and Soils.

Bureau of Animal Industry receives $1,287,380, an increase of $100,000 for the extension of its meat and other inspection work, and an emergency appropriation of $500,000 is placed at the disposal of the secretary of agriculture to stamp out the foot-and-mouth disease, which has recently raged in several of the New England states, and other contagious diseases of animals which may appear.