Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-06-30
THE BRANCH OFFICES.
Report Of the Interior Department
Committee Made Today.
ITS RECOMMENDATIONS.
To Remove the Models From the Exhibition
Halls and Utilize the Space for Clerks
Documents Should Be on the Ground
Fioor-The Atlantic Building.

The Interior Department committee Of which
Assistant Secretary Sims is chairman; ap-
pointed to consider the location Of branch
offices Of the Interior Department in this city,
today made its report to Secretary Hoke Smith.
The report says that the one thing demand
ing the attention Of the department is the ne
cessity Of furnishing 6re-proof and stable ac-
commodations for the portion of the general
land Office now outside of the main building,
much Of the records Of which are original
papers Of inestimable value to claimants of
public lands.
1t is also recommended that the two floors
offered Of the Union building at SIS, 900 per
annum be rented for the exhibition of the
models in the patent Office now stored in the
main building. These is no special ap-
preparation available for this purpose,
and the only funds available are the %, 800
appropriated for the general land Office
and the $4,000 for the storage of
documents. As the removal of the models will
enable the Department to provide quarters in
this building for the outlying Offices Of the
general land Office. the use toward this purpose
OF the above appropriation would seem to be
proper.
Should 1t be found practicable to furnish
space there for the storage OF documents as
well, $500 would be the amount available.
THE COURSE JUSTIFIED.
Congress would have to be appealed TO for
the balance of the $4,000 required, and it is
believed that the responsibility resting upon
the department to furnish fire-proof and other
wise safe accommodations for the working
force and the records justifes the course
recommended.
1t is further recommended that the other
outlying bureaus of the department continue in
their present quarters, and that Congress be
asked for an urgency deficiency appropriation
to meet the expense Of the removal Of the
models and the fitting up Of the space thus va
Gated for the accommodation of the clerical
force.
The census Office and the geological survey
are well provided for and no change is recon-
mended In their quarters. The report calls at
tention to the unsafe condition OF tho west
wing OF the main building OF the Interior De-
partment, made 80 by the storage Of tons Of
documents in the corridors. This accumula-
ton Is being removed.
In regard to the exhibition hall for models,
1t Is found that they now occupy $500 square
feet in the model halls and galleries. The
floors of the Union building could be used as q
temporary exhibition hall for the patent office
models. In the meantime Congress should be
asked to appropriate sufficient sum to
erect in the court yard Of this (the main
building) suitable exhibition hall Of iron and
glass, or to provide the room 20 urgently
needed by the construction Of building suita-
BILE in dimensions and structure to be devoted
to the accommodation of the Department of the
Interior, leaving this edifce for the exclusive
use OF the patent Office.
DOCUMENTS ON THE UPPER FLOORS.
"The halls Of the upper floors of the main
building. says the report, ARE stored with tons
Of docum ents which are q constant menace to
the lives Of the employees of the rooms be-
meath IL the models could be removed to
some other place the space thus obtained could
be utilized for the Office force now on the lower
floors. well as for the proper accommodation
of those divisions Of the general land Office now
in rented quarters not fire proof. The space
vacated by the force on the lower
floors could be used for the storage Of the ma
terial now in the model halls and galleries, and
1t needs no argument to make it clear that the
order to be observed in the occupancy Of the
building should be documents and other mate
riai on the ground floors and clerks on the
upper floors.
THE ATLANTIC BUILDING.
1.-THE Indian Office has three rooms on the
sixth floor, eleven on the seventh floor. the
entire eighth floor and vault room In the Allan
tic building. Ninety people are accommodated.
The building, the acting Commissioner reports
is not fire proof and has but one fire escape
that in the rear. and the escape of the employees
would be doubtful in case Of fire. The rooms
are small There is no place for stor-
age except halls and in the basement
cellar, where it is not practicable to
keep papers needed for constant reference
The weight Of papers stored is constantly in
creasing. the number Of communications re-
ceived being over 40. 900 per year. An assistant
to the building inspector of the District Of CO.
lumbia gave it as his opinion on the 11th
instant that the weight of the files in one of
the western rooms is excessive. The elevator
servi g is not good
but the president OF the Atlantic Building
Company under date of the l4th instant con-
tends that the building is one Of the safest in
the city, and Mr.. James G. Hill, his architect,
states that the floors occupied by the Indian
Office could, with absolute safety, carry more
than three times the weight now imposed upon
them"
The annual rental paid by the Interior De-
partment alone for accommodations for its out
lying bureaus in this city is ISL, 40.