Evening star., 1934-06-10
.L0NGF|GHT BRINGS
ARCHIVES BUILDING
Campaign Begun in 1873 to
House Federal Records
Properly.
BY JOHN G. BRADLEY.

is nearing completion. When the scaf-
folding shall have been removed and
the building dedicated, one will view
a magnificent structure Its symmetry.
its fine proportions, its great mass
coming up out of the earth, and its
SNUG solidarity will catch the eye and
stir the heart of the most casual
passerby.
But if one would appraise this build
ing justly he cannot depend merely on
its physical appearance. He must read
into it some of the hopes and struggles
of the past Only through knowledge
of its history. its purpose, and its
future possibilities can this pile OF
stones be transmitted into the thing II
really is. At best, this thing you see
is but the outward and incomplete
reality of a dream born over half
century ago and which encompasses
many centuries to come.
Argument Dates to 1873.
Let us see.
The first public record of arguments
In behalf of some kind of an archives
building shows the date of 1878, al
though it had been discussed many
years before that. This is contained
in the annual report of the Secretary
of War, McCrary, quoted, in part, as
follows:
THE quartermaSter general calls at
tention to the danger of destruction
of records of great value to the Gov
ernment and to its citizens and
urges that building be constructed
as hall of records. In this he
proposes that the records not in daily
use of the several executive depart
ments be stored, under charge OF COM
petent superintendentS and watchmen
to be properly filed and easy of access.
In his annual message for 1878,
President Hayes commended to the
favora BILE consideration of Congress
the recommendation of the Secretary
of War that provisions be made for
the erection of a fireproof building fol
the preservation of certain valuable
records. now constantly exposed to
destruction by fire" These arguments
were continued without results until
December. 1880. when a fire broke out
in the War Department, threatening
the loss of valuable papers. On
February 8. 1881. another fire broke
out in the War Department and two
days later the Senate passed bill
providing for 100000 to erect hall
of records but it died for lack OF
action in the House.
Failed in Other Tests.
This was the Forty-sixth Congress
The Forty seventh, Forty-eighth,
Forty-ninth Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty
second and Fifty-third Congresses
passed similar bills in the Senate, but
the House. IN spite of the fact that
this legislation was sponsored by Pres
identS Arthur and Cleveland, never
concurred. While the Secretary OF
War was the first cabinet member to
advocate this. later others joined in
the fight until by 1902 five additional
cabinet members had joined the move
ment. Year after year they included
in their annual reports, recommenda
tions for a hall Of records" An ex-
trac. from one Of these reports will
suffice
The departments are crowded with
files of official papers to the detri-
ment of the working force and the
serious inconvenience of the public
business. Costly public buildings
erected for Office purposes should not
be used for storage. The files rot in
current use should be stored else.
where. A hall of records become,
more and more necessary each year..
From the Fifty-fourth to the Fifty.
seventh Congress, IS bills were intro
duced on this subject without material
result. A quotation from Senator
Vest Of the Fifty-seventh Congress
is significant:
This bill has been before Congress
for 20 years. Every department OF
the Government, and especially the
Treasury Department, 1 had almost
said, begged that it might be passed.
If fire should take place tomorrow
it would involve the Government
in the loss of millions of dcllars.'
In 1907 President Theodore Roose-
welt took up the fight. In 1908 Secre-
tary of the Treasury Cortelyou said:
"The necessity for some structure OF
the character described grows con-
stantly. An investigation made in
1906 showed that the files then or
hand in all buildings under the con-
troll of the Treasury Department In
Washington and in space rented ex-
r1, q
million cubical feet and that they were
accumulating at the rate CT over 25,-
900 cubical feet per annum. The con-
dition of these uncurrent files is pre-
carious in the extereme."
DIR. J. F. Jameson Praised.
Late in 1908, the American Histori-
cal Association Joined in the fight and
appointed a committee including DR..
j. Franklin Jameson, then of the Car
negie Institution of washington (now
Of the Library of Congress, Division of
Manuscripts), to study the problem.
And it is only fair to say that to DR..
Jameson belongs much of the credit for
carrying on the fight since, resulting
in the final legislation for the Archives
Building under discussion.
That conditions had grown tntol-
cradle is evidenced by report issued
by DR.. Jameson in 1914, extracts OF
which appear below:
Not a mile from this spot, Tor
instance. there is a warehouse IN
which the papers of the Treasury
Department have simply been dumped
on the floor-boxes, bundles, books,
loose papers-till the pile reaches well
toward the ceiling; and no man knows
what it contains or could find IN II
any given book or paper" Re
ferring to the Treasury Building ne
says: In its attic story several miles
of wooden shelving contain old Treas
ury papers. closely packed together
and dry as tinder. which up to the
present time have not Succumbed to
spontaneous combustion under our
August sun. If by mistake one
goes to the old building of the Cor
coran Art Gallery instead of the new
he will be compensated by the unu-
sual sight, in the basement. of a
body of Government records. so stored
that in a dry season they can be con-