were $30,516.01. The appropriation was $32,400. Balance to be returned to the Treasury, $1,883.99.
The expenditures on account of the Capitol grounds were $60,000, the amount of the appropriation.
The expenditures during the year on account of the extension of the Government Printing Office, which is now finished, were $29,039.24. The amount expended during the previous year was $14,244.57. Of the appropriation ($43,800), $516.19 remain to be returned to the Treasury.
NEW PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
The Interior Department has in the course of time grown to be so
large an institution that the Patent-Office building is altogether too
small to accommodate more than one-half of its records and its clerical
force. The inconveniences suffered on account of the insufficiency of
room are a constant source of complaint. Only four of the eight
bureaus of the Interior Department are accommodated in the building,
namely, the Patent Office, the Land Office, the Indian Bureau, and the
Bureau of Railroad Accounts. And even these four are so cramped
for room that the halls and corridors must be used for the storing of
valuable records, some of which are in daily use, and that the crowding
together of the clerical force is such as not only to cause very serious
discomfort but also to interfere with the transaction of the public business. Four bureaus of the Interior Department, namely, the Pension
Office, the Census Office, the Bureau of Education, and the Office of the
Geological Survey are located in different parts of the city, in buildings
rented for that purpose. The Interior Department, inclusive of the
Census Office, pays this year $44,900 in rents. The scattering of the
different bureaus constituting this department in widely separated locations causes much delay and circumstance in the correspondence between
the bureau chiefs and the head of the department, which should always
be easy and rapid. A large correspondence and valuable papers have
to be carried to and fro for signature and inspection, and are in their
transit liable to be lost or damaged. The crowding together of a large
number of clerks in small rooms is dangerous to health, and sometimes
seriously interferes with the performance of duty. The file rooms are
so packed that we find it sometimes difficult to get at documents necessary for the prosecution of business. Almost every foot of space, not
only in the halls and corridors, but under stairs and arches, and in nooks
and corners from the basement to the roof of the building has had
to be used for storing papers and records. We have been obliged to
use even one of the new model halls recently restored for the accommodation of the copying force, putting in wooden partitions and covering
the room destined for the exhibition of models with desks and office
furniture. It is evident that the erection of a new edifice for the accommodation of the Interior Department will soon be recognized as an
