Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-21

contain ultimately a building embrac-
ing 100000 cubic feet of space.
THAT the said designs and estimates
shall make provision for building
| ca pable of subsequent extension, with
out impairing its architectural appear
ance, from capacity of 100000 cubic
| feet to a capacity of 100000 cubic
| feet
THAT before the said designs and
estimates are completed inspection
| shall be made under the direction of
| the Secretary of the Treasury Of the
best modern national archive buildings
| in Europe. and consultation shall be
had with the best authorities in Eu
| rope on the construction and arrange
| ment Of archive buildings.
| THAT the said designs and estima ties
shall provide for the construction of a
building the total cost of which, including
heating and ventilating apparatus. ele-
vators and approaches. complete, shall
not exceed the sum of $15oO,OUO.
That whenever the said designs and
estimates have been approved by COM
mission consisting Of the President of the
Senate, the Speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives, the Secretary or the treas
ury the Secretary of War and the Secre-
tary of the Interior: then the secretary
Of the Treasury shall be. and he is here
| by authorized and directed, In his dis
| cretion, to purchase, or cause to be taken
| for public use. by condemnation or other
wise, as site for said building, any
piece Of land of the size defined in this
| section the purchase Of which shall be
approved by the said commission.
| ''That for the preparation of said de-
signs and estimates the sum of $4,000, or
| 80 much thereof as may be necessary, is
hereby authorized to be expended for en-
| ployment of technical and engineering
services in the Office of the supervising
| architect"
Jameson to Pursue Inquiry.
| DR.. Jameson sailed today for Europe
| and while there he will make further in
| vestigation as to national archive build
ings abroad, although he goes to Europe
| primarily on business connected with his
office as chief Of the department of his
| torical research of the Carnegie Institu-
| ton.
| While he has no commission from the
| United States government to investigate
! foreign archives buildings, any informa-
| ton that he may gather on that subject,
| it was said at his Office today, will be
availa BILE for the commission which is to
have charge of the construction of the
| building, as a matter of courtesy.
| DR.. Jameson is said to have made more
of a study of such buildings than any
other man in Washington. 1t was pointed
| out also that the commission, consisting
| of the President of the Senate, the Speak
| er of the House and the SECRETARIES of
4 the Treasury, War and Interior. can OBJ
tain much information to guide them from
| the printed hearings before the House
public buildings and grounds committee.
| In those hearings, DIR. Jameson set
| forth that the government archives in
Washington are kept in perhaps 100 diff
| ferent places in the city. He said that
the. government Of the United States is
| perhaps the only one Of the large gov
ernments of the world that has never
| provided a general archives building in
| its capital city.
In Danger From Fire.
| Mr. Jameson said, in part, upon the oc-
| casion of these hearings:
There are number Of different places
in this city where If fire should break
| out, the government might in few hours
lose financial records that would be
worth to them millions Of dollars That
| is easily to be believed If any considera-
| BILE number of records are colonized in
| buildings that are not fireproof outside of
| the bounds of the Treasury building.
| I'm the government buildings, too, these
| records are not secure from the danger
| Of fire All the archives of the War De-
| partment were burned up in 1900; many
Of the archives of the Treasury Depart
| ment and other departments suffered in
| 1914; in 1888 the most valuable portion
| of the archives of the Treasury were
| burned up; in 1877 l think the archives
of the patent office were, to a large ex-
| tent. destroyed by fire.
"In the attics of the Treasury building.
the State, War and Navy building and
/ the Interior building, in the condition in
| which things have to be kept in the sum-
| mer heat of Washington. masses of
| papers have become as dry as finder and
| could easily be set on fire even if the
| buildings themselves may be regarded az
| fireproof. Many of the files of the gov
| eminent are packed away very tightly
| and in many cases they are packed i'm
| wooden packing boxes and amid more or
| less inf1ammable materials.
RESIDES the danger from fire they are
| exposed to danger from dampness Mr..
! Leland tells me that there are thousands
of volumes stored in places so damp that
| the moisture drips from the roof upon
| them until the bindings become moIdy
] and the leaves stick together. They are
in some cases stored in places where dirt