resentatives of foreign powers in this capital be allowed to obtain copies of such as they may desire at such price. The Government of the United States has experienced the advantage of this system, adopted elsewhere, when it purchases documents which it may desire. Your letter states that among the legations to which bound and unbound documents are now sent are those of Bremen, Sardinia, Costa Rica, New Granada, Nicara gua, Honduras, Ecuador, and Switzerland. Neither Bremen, Costa Rica, Honduras, nor Switzerland maintains a legation or has any diplo matic representatives in the United States. The government of Sardinia has been succeeded by that of Italy, as that of New Granada is now known as the United States of Colombia." The committee provide in their proposed bill for the supply of bound sets of documents to the legations in this capital of those governments who furnish to the legations of the United States in their respective capitals copies of all their printed parliamentary or legislative documents, through the Department of State. Provision is also made for supplying that Department with extra copies of all public documents relating to foreign affairs, a large reduction in the number of the volumes of those accompanying the President's annual message having been made by the committee, with the approval of the Secretary of State. The committee has incorporated into the bill a provision for printing, in the place of the numbers heretofore printed for gratuitous distribution by the two Houses of Congress and the Departments issuing them, of one thousand copies of the Annual Report on Commercial Relations, for distribution by the Secretary of State; three thousand copies of the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, for distribution by the Secretary of the Treasury; two thousand copies of the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and two thousand copies of the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Public Lands,.for distribution by the Secretary of the Interior; twenty-five thousand copies of the Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture, for distribution by the Commissioner of Agriculture; and ten thousand copies of the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for distribution by the Smithsonian Institution; it being understood that these copies are necessary for distribution to the officials of those branches of the public serv ice, and to those who render important and generally gratuitous aid in the preparation of these reports. The numbers of the documents thus supplied to the Executive Departments, and of the Smithsonian Institution, respectively, may be reduced, but as the reports are about the same size each successive year, a general provision by statute for their publication will obviate the necessity for annual legislation on each one. The committee submit herewith a draft of a bill to carry into effect the preceding suggestions, which they have arrived at after a careful examination of the subjects referred to them. They present this draft of a bill to the Senate, not as a perfect measure, but as a basis for congressional action; and, that they may receive the opinions of parties interested thereupon, they ask that this report may be printed, and recommitted to the Committee on Public Printing. DRAFT OF A BILL TO PROVIDE FOR THE SALE OF EXTRA COPIES OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS AND FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE REGULAR OFFICIAL EDITIONS THEREOF. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter extra copies of the public documents printed by order of Congress, hereinafter enumerated, shall be sold, and the regular official editions thereof shall be distributed for public and official use, in the manner provided by this act. SEC. 2. That when any report, document, or other publication not hereinafter enumerated, shall be ordered to be printed by Congress, or by either House thereof, it shall be the duty of the Congressional Printer to obtain from the Joint Committee on Public Printing instructions whether the same shall be stereotyped, and what number of extra copies shall be printed for sale; and that he shall stereotype the same when so instructed, and shall print for sale, and wrap for transmission by the mails when necessary, such number of copies as the committee may instruct him to print, in addition to such number of copies as may have been ordered and paid for in advance, under the provisions of the act approved June 25, 1859;* and each extra copy so printed for sale shall bear on its title page its cost-price, which shall be made up from the cost-price of the paper, press-work, and binding thereof, at which cost-price it shall be sold by him, and also the rate of postage thereon, after the same shall have been properly wrapped for transportation by the mails; and it shall be the duty of the Congressional Printer to sell any document so printed for sale on receipt of the cost-price thereof; and, when he shall also receive the postage thereof, with the cost of wrapping, to cause the same to be properly mailed to any designated address; but it shall not be lawful for him to supply any document unless he has been paid therefor in advance; and that he shall employ an additional clerk, at an annual salary of fourteen hundred dollars, who shall have charge of the public documents thus published for sale or for distribution for public and official use, and shall keep detailed accounts of all public documents sold; and it shall also be the duty of the Congressional Printer to make monthly returns to the Treasury of the United States of all moneys received by him from the sale of public documents, and to embody in his annual report a condensed statement of such sales, with the number of books on hand; and it shall also be the duty of the Congressional Printer to cause to be published a list of all public documents printed for sale, with the prices thereof, and the cost of wrapping and postage thereon, for one year after they shall have been ready for delivery, once a month, in the Official Patent-Office Gazette, and, during the sessions of Congress, once a week in the Congressional Record. SEC. 3. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby charged with the receipt, safekeeping, and distribution of all journals of Congress, public documents, and books, already or hereafter directed by law to be printed or purchased for the use of the Government, except such as are purchased for especial use of Congress or of either House thereof; or for the use of the Executive, or of any of the Executive Departments; and for this purpose he is hereby directed to set apart suitable rooms in the Patent-Office building, and to authorize the superintendent of public documents of the Department of the Interior to assume the charge, under his direction, of receiving, collecting, arranging, classifying, packing, distributing, and preserving such journals of Congress, public documents, and books, and to keep a register thereof, showing the number and kind thereof received from any source, and when and to whom any of them have been distributed, with the authority for such distribution.t SEC. 4. That there shall be printed and bound in leather one thousand two hundred complete sets of the journals, the reports, and the documents printed by order of Congress, or of either House thereof, including the annual message of the President of the United States, with the reports of the heads of Executive Departments and accompanying documents, which the Congressional Printer shall cause to be distributed, or so many thereof as may be needed, as follows: to the Secretary of the Senate, one hundred and ten sets, of which he shall deliver one set to the Vice-President of the United states, one set to each Senator, one set to himself, four sets to the Secretary's offices, *Statutes at Large, vol. ii, page 186, sec. 10. † Statutes at Large, vol. ii, page 379, sec. 1; vol. xv, page 292. and ten sets to the Library of the Senate, and have the remaining sets kept as a reserve by the Librarian of the Senate, from which Senators may obtain volumes to perfect their sets in case they may need them; to the Clerk of the House of Representatives, three hundred and sixty sets; of which he shall deliver one set to each Representative and Delegate, one set to himself, ten sets to the Clerk's offices, and twenty sets to the Library of the House, and have the remaining sets kept as a reserve by the Librarian of the House, as a reserve from which Representatives may obtain volumes to perfect their sets in case they may need them; to the Library of Congress, fifty-two sets; two sets of which shall be for the library, and shall not be taken therefrom, and fifty sets shall be for exchange with foreign governments, under the direction of the Joint Committee on the Library, as provided in the joint resolution approved March 2, 1867; to the President of the United States, three sets, of which one set shall be for the library of the Executive Mansion, and one set shall be for the office of Commissioner of Public Buildings; to the Department of State, thirty sets, of which five sets shall be for the use of the Department; and twenty-five sets shall be for transmission to United States legations and consulates abroad, and to the legations in this capital of foreign governments; to the Treasury Department, thirty sets, of which one set shall be for the use of the Coast Survey; one set shall be for the use of the mint at Philadelphia; one set shall be for the use of the mint at San Francisco; one set shall be for the use of the mint at New Orleans; one set shall be for the use of the mint at Denver: and twenty-five sets shall be for the use of the Department or the bureaus thereof; to the War Department, twelve sets, of which one set shall be for the Military Academy at West Point, one set shall be for the use of the headquarters of the Army, and ten sets shall be for the use of the Department and the bureaus thereof; to the Navy Department, fifteen sets, of which one set shall be for the Naval Academy at Annapolis, one set shall be for the use of the Admiral, one set shall be for the use of the Naval Observatory, and twelve sets shall be for the use of the Department and the bureaus thereof; to the Interior Department, five hundred and eighty-one sets, of which ten sets shall be for the use of the Department and the bureaus and offices thereof; one set to the executive of each State which shall in return send to the Library of Congress a complete annual set of its executive and legislative documents, as shall appear by an annual report made by the Librarian of Congress to the Secretary of the Interior; one set to the executive of each Territory, and it is hereby made the duty of the secretary of state of each Territory to send a complete annual report of its executive and legislative documents to the Library of Congress; one set to such incorporated college, public library, athenæum, literary and scientific institution, board of trade or public association in the United States, as may be designated by each Senator, Representative, and Delegate in Congress to receive them: Provided, That all of said institutions which have been heretofore so designated, and which are receiving such documents at the present time, shall continue to receive them until the Secretary of the Interior shall be convinced that said institutions are no longer proper depositories: And provided further, That said documents shall be furnished to such institutions only as shall signify a willingness to pay the cost of transportation of the same; and the remaining sets of documents shall be kept as a reserve from which the Secretary of the Interior may supply sets or volumes to the executives of States or Territories, or such institutious as may be entitled under this act to receive them: And provided further, That offices newly created shall be supplied by the Secretary of the Interior under the direction of the Joint Committee on Public Printing; to the Post-Office Department, ten sets, for the use of the Department and the offices thereof; to the Department of Justice, five sets, for the use of the Department; to the Department of Agriculture, two sets, for the use of the Department; to the Smithsonian Institution, one set, for the use of the Institution; to the Congressional Printer, one set, for the use of the Public Printing-Office.* SEC. 5. That at the close of every session of Congress the Secretary of the Interior shall purchase eleven thousand pamphlet copies of the acts and resolves of Congress for that session, arranged with an alphabetical index, which he shall cause to be distributed, or so many thereof as may be needed, as follows: To the President and Vice-President of the United States, two copies each; to each Senator, Representative, and Delegate in Congress, one copy; to the Librarian of the Senate, for the use of Senators, one hundred and twenty-six copies; to the Librarian of the House, two hundred and fifty copies, for the use of the Representatives and Delegates; to the Librarian of Congress, two copies; to the Department of State, including those for the use of legations and consulates, six hundred copies; to the Treasury Department, two hundred copies; to the War Department, including those for the use of officers of the Army, two hundred copies; to the Navy Department, including those for the use of officers of the Navy, one hundred copies; to the Department of the Interior, including those for the use of the surveyor-general, registers and receivers of *Statutes at Large, vol. iii, page 140; vol. v, pages 409, 717; vol. x, page 145; vol. xi, pages 253, 368 : vol. xii, pages 245, 360; vol. xvii, page 578. public land-offices, two hundred and fifty copies; to the Post-Office Department, fifty copies; to the Department of Justice, including those for the use of the chief and associate justices, the judges and the officers of the United States and territorial courts, four hundred and twenty-five copies; to the Department of Agriculture, ten copies; to the Smithsonian Institution, five copies; to the Government Printing-Office, two copies; to the governors and secretaries of Territories, one copy each; to be retained in the custody of the Secretary of the Interior, one thousand copies; and the remainder shall be distributed to the States and Territories in proportion to the number of Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in Congress to which they are at the time entitled." SEC. 6. That after the close of each Congress the Secretary of the Interior shall purchase a sufficient number of the volumes containing the Statutes at Large, enacted by that Congress, to enable him to distribute copies, or as many thereof as may be needed, as follows: To the President of the United States, four copies, one of which shall be for the library of the Executive Mansion, and one copy shall be for the use of the Commissioner of Public Buildings; to the Vice-President of the United States, one copy; to the librarian of the Senate, for the use of Senators, one hundred and fourteen copies; to the librarian of the House, for the use of Representatives and Delegates, four hundred and ten copies; to the Library of Congress, six copies, including four copies for the law-library; to the Department of State, including those for the use of legations and consulates, three hundred and eighty copies; to the Treasury Department, including those for the use of officers of customs, two hundred and sixty copies; to the War Department, including a copy for the Military Academy at West Point, fifty copies; to the Navy Department, including a copy for the library at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, a copy for the library of each navy-yard in the United States, a copy for the library of the Brooklyn Naval Lyceum, and a copy for the library of the Naval Institute at Charlestown, Mass., sixty-five copies; to the Department of the Interior, including those for the use of the surveyors-general, registers and receivers of public land-offices, two hundred and fifty copies; to the Post-Office Department, fifty copies; to the Department of Justice, including those for the use of the chief and associate justices, the judges and the officers of the United States and territorial courts, four hundred and twenty-five copies; to the Department of Agriculture, five copies; to the Smithsonian Institution, two copies; to the Government Printing-Office, one copy; and four hundred and forty-four copies shall be retained in the custody of the Secretary of the Interior, to supply deficiencies and offices newly created.t SEC. 7. That immediately after the publication of each volume of the Reports of the Supreme Court of the United States, the reporter thereof shall cause to be delivered to the Secretary of the Interior three hundred and fifty copies of the same, to enable him to distribute as many thereof as may be needed, as follows: To the President of the United States, two copies, one copy of which shall be for the library of the Executive Mansion; to the Vice-President of the United States, one copy; to the library of the Senate, five copies; to the library of the House of Representatives, ten copies; to the Library of Congress, six copies, four of which shall be for the law-library; to the Department of State, five copies; to the Treasury Department, twenty copies; to the War Department, ten copies; to the Navy Department, ten copies; to the Department of the Interior, forty copies; to the Post-Office Department, ten copies; to the Department of Justice, one hundred and thirty-five copies, including those for the Chief-Justice and justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and for the use of the judges of the circuit, district, and territorial courts, the Court of Claims, the Assistant Attorneys-General, and the Solicitor of the Department of Justice; to the Department of Agriculture, two copies; to the executive departments of the Territories, one copy each; to the Smithsonian Institution, one copy; the remainder shall be deposited in the Department of the Interior, to supply deficiencies and offices newly created.‡ SEC. 8. That it shall be the duty of the superintendent of public documents of the Department of the Interior, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in every year in which a new Congress is to assemble, to compile a Biennial Register, corrected up to the thirtieth day of September of that year, fifteen hundred copies of which shall be printed and bound by the Congressional Printer; and said Biennial Register shall contain lists of all the officers and agents, civil, military, and naval, including clerks, cadets, midshipmen, and all the other employés in the service of the Government of the United States, together with the place where each person is employed, the State, Territory, or country where born, the State or Territory whence appointed, and the amount of compensation, pay, and emoluments each receive; and it shall also contain a list of the names, force, and condition of all the ships and vessels belonging to the United States, 'Statutes at Large, vol. iii, pages 439, 475; vol. ix, page 75; vol. xii, pages 245, 246; vol. xvii, page 578. Statutes at Large, vol. ix, pages 75, 340; vol. xii, page 245; vol. xvi, page 307; vol. xvii, page 578. Statutes at Large, vol. iii, page 376; vol. v, page 545; vol. vii, page 245; vol. xiv, page 205; vol. Ivi, page 307; vol. xviii, page 578. S. Rep. 3622 and when and where built; and there shall also be included a correct list of all printers of the laws of the United States, subsequent to the date of compilation of the preceding Biennial Register, with the compensation allowed to each; and of all printers within the period aforesaid in any way employed by Congress, or by any Department, or officer of the Government, with the compensation allowed to each, desiguating the Department or officer causing the printing or advertising to be executed; and the Biennial Register shall contain, moreover, a correct statement of all allowances made by the Postmaster-General, within the aforesaid period, to each contractor, on contracts for carrying the mails, discriminating the sum paid as stipulated by the original contract, and the sums as additional allowance; and to enable the Secretary of the Interior to have the Biennial Register promptly compiled, he, for his own Department and the heads of the other Departments and offices, respectively, shall, not later than the first day of December, of the year in which said Register is to be published, cause to be furnished all the information necessary to a compliance with the provisions of this act; and after the publication of the said Biennial Register, the Secretary of the Interior shall distribute copies, or as many thereof as may be needed, as follows: To the President of the United States, four copies, one copy of which shall be for the library of the Executive Mansion; to the Vice-President of the United States, two copies; to each Senator, Representative, and Delegate in Congress, one copy each; to the Secretary of the Senate, one copy; to the Clerk of the House, one copy; to the Library of the Senate, fifty copies, of which one copy shall be supplied to each standing committee of the Senate; to the Library of the House of Representatives, seventyfive copies, of which one copy shall be supplied to each standing committee of the House; to the Library of Congress, twenty-five copies; to the Department of State, one hundred and twenty-five copies; to the Treasury Department, forty-five copies; to the War Department, thirty-five copies; to the Navy Department, twenty copies; to the Department of Justice, twenty-five copies; to the Post-Office Department, fifty copies; to the Department of the Interior, forty copies; to the Department of Agricnlture, three copies; to the Smithsonian Institution, four copies; to the secretary of state of each State and to the secretary of each Territory in the United States, one copy each; and the remaining copies shall be kept by him as a reserve from which he may supply newly-created offices or members of Congress.* SEC. 9. That all bound volumes of congressional or Executive Documents, Statutes at Large, Reports of the Supreme Court of the United States, and of the Biennial Register, (excepting such copies as are delivered under the provisions of the act to the President and the Vice-President of the United States, the Chief-Justice and the justices of the Supreme Court, and the Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in Congress,) delivered for the use of civil, military, or naval officers of the United States, shall be regarded as public property, and shall be transferred by each of said officers to his successor when retiring from office.t SEC. 10. That hereafter it shall be the duty of the Congressional Printer to print and bind such additional numbers of the annual reports of the Executive Departments, with such selections from the documents accompanying them as may be desired, as the heads of those Departments may respectively order; and also such copies of the sepa rate reports of heads of bureaus and other subordinate offices as the heads of their respective Departments may order: Provided, That the cost of printing and binding such additional numbers of the report of any head of bureau or other subordinate officer of a Department be charged to the printing account of that bureau or Department office. SEC. 11. That whenever papers relating to foreign affairs shall be communicated to Congress, accompanying the annual message of the President of the United States, it shall be the duty of the Congressional Printer to cause to be printed and bound, in addition to the usual number, one thousand five hundred copies for the use of the Department of State; and it shall also be the duty of the Congressional Printer to cause to be printed, (and bound, if necessary,) when ordered by the Secretary of State, for distribution through the legations and consulates of the United States, any number not exceeding one thousand copies of the Report on Commercial Relations, five hundred copies of any other report made by any Executive Department or bureau thereof, and one thousand copies of any document emanating from the Department of State which may be ordered to be printed by either House of Congress. § SEC. 12. That it shall be the duty of the Congressional Printer to print and bind three thousand copies of the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on Commerce and Navigation, for distribution by the Secretary of the Treasury. SEC. 13. That it shall be the duty of the Congressional Printer to print and bind two thousand copies of the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and *Statutes at Large, vol. iii, page 342; vol. iv, page 608; vol. ix, page 600; vol. xii, page 245; vol. XV, page 292. † Statutes at Large, vol. xvii, p. 578. |