Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1876.djvu/32

XXVIII building and its surroundings: Finishing inside of cupola and painting ceiling over guard-room, $1,500; coal-vaults, $5,000; stable and straw-house, $3,000; four hand-power elevators, $2,000; inclosing wall, (about 1,900 feet,) $60,000.

The estimate contemplates the employment of prison-labor wherever possible.

The architect, in closing his report to the jail commissioners, says: “The character of the work is excellent, and the building being well adapted for a penitentiary as well as a jail, I would call attention to the suggestion contained in the Supervising Architect's report for 1873, and if authority is obtained from Congress for converting it into a penitentiary, an appropriation should be asked for erecting the necessary work-shops.”

The Department, through its several bureaus and offices, has been well represented at the International Exposition held at Philadelphia, Pa. The collections furnished by the Patent, Land, Indian, Educational, and Census Offices, together with the offerings of the Geological Surveys under Messrs. Hayden and Powell, attracted marked attention among the Government exhibits, and in their arrangement and selection reflected credit on those having them in charge. The general management of the Department display was under the direction of Commissioner John Eaton, jr., appointed by the President to represent the Department at the Centennial, and to his efforts, characterized by energy and fidelity, the success of the Interior exhibit is largely due.

There were received at the Department for distribution during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876, twenty-eight thousand eight hundred and seventy-four bound volumes and seventeen thousand two hundred and eighty-five pamphlets.

I am persuaded that the laws relating to the publication and distribution of public documents should be carefully revised and simplified.

In my judgment, provision should be made for supplying gratuitously all the important public libraries of the country with copies of every valuable publication issued by the Government, while individuals should be required to pay cost-price for the same, exception being made of persons in official position, who should be provided with such documents as are essential to the proper discharge of the duties of their office.

The custody and distribution of such documents should be confined to a single agency, so that there might be one source from which the publications of the Government, or accurate information concerning them, could readily be obtained.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Z. CHANDLER, Secretary of the Interior.
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