Evening star., 1900-04-11
u. S. SENATE LIBRARY
THE SCOPE AND CHARACTER OF THE
INSTITUTION.
All 1t Needs Now is Space in Which
the Librarians May Work
to Advantage.

One of the leading members of the SEN
ate a man who knows the worth OF the
library, summed up the facts IN MS re-
mark: 1.-The Senate library has good work
ing material. 1t will need but little else II
its space is increased to an extent suhclent
to enable the librarians to work to advan-
tage, so that they may furnish promptly
whatever may be called for
The collection of books in the Senate Ii
brary amounts to more than 100000 vol
umes Many Of these books are unfortu-
nately going to ruin with dry-rot, owing to
the lack of space and facilities for keeping
them in proper order. The tools are good to
work with, but there is not enough space
in which to employ them to the best pur-
poses The crowded condition of the library
is such as to have excited well-founded
apprehension of disaster resulting from
overwhelming the floors or in the event of
an accidental fire. On the floor above the
main part of the library there are tons
and tons Of books stacked on the floors for
want of shelf room. Prior to 1870 the
Senate of the United States had no private
library for the special and exclusive use
of its members, which privation had sub
jected them for many years to inconVen.
ience and disadvantage. The House of
Representatives had long since established
a private library for the use of its mem
bers. The President of the United States
and each Of the executive departments had
and still have an individual library, appro-
priately selected and kept for his and their
special use. The Senate at this time own
ed a large number of books and documents,
but as they were scattered about in various
rooms and apartments without systematic
arrangement and without particular care,
they were generally unavailable and mac
cessible for prompt use when desired. Sena-
tor Foote Of Vermont is largely responsible
for the collection of these books and their
.-<~ %to a14 nf ~
He presented a resolution in the Senate
proposing the formation of a library to
embrace political history, the whole ma
tional legislation OF the country, including
reports, bills, resolutions, debates, proceed
ings, votes and acts of Congress under the
Constitution and proceedings Of the Con-
gress of the Confederation, the acts and
proceedings OF the executive departments
of the government SO far as they have
been communicated to Congress; the inter-
course with foreign nations illustrating the
American policy and its views Of interna-
tional law and principles based upon the
Constitution of the United States; the sta
tistics of population and immigration, or
the finances, commerce and navigation, the
post offices, relations with the Indian tribes,
the public lands and private land claims,
the military and naval affairs and all the
various branches OF the public service; the
writings and papers of eminent American
statesmen and patriots: books and compila-
tions containing national and international
laws and principles; the decisions of the
Supreme Court Of the United States and
many books Of a public character that go
to make up a collection peculiarly adapted
to the use Of senators and statesmen.
From this description 1t is apparent that
the foundation of the Senate library consists
mainly Of state papers. records, debates.
letters and other authentic documents, the
accumulation constituting what former
Chief Clerk William Hickey OF the Senate
appropriately styled "a documentary his
tory Of the origin and progress OF the North
American colonies; Of the causes and ac-
complishment Of the American revolution.
and of the constitution of government for
the United States" Following out the
character Of books suggested for the IL
b-ary the various librarians Of the Senate
have gathered together collection of Of
flcial documents OF great value. Particular
ly interesting and important are the jour
mails, acts, proceedings and debates Of the
convention which formed the Constitution
Of the United States. General A. w. Greely,
the chief signal of1cer Of the army, who
has made some extended Investigations OF
the history Of the official documents Of the
early years of the republic, recently made
some remarkable statements bearing on
this point, which, in view of the character
of the material forming an important part
Of the Senate library, are particularly per-
tinent. General Greely said: 1.-The unsys-
tematic methods which obtained as to these
early documents would not be SO trying and
confusing to the historical student IL there
could be found anywhere a complete col
lection Of such documents or even a list
showing their number, name and special
character. 1t Will probably surprise many