Evening star., 1934-06-10

Agriculture department.
sitting heat of the space between
roof and ceiling of the dome. Danger
of destruction by fire is constant
under such circumstances. 1t is sur
prising that fires have not been more
frequent. But they have occurred
several times in former years. and
only last Summer a fire in the build
ing of the Geological Survey burned
up papers which it had cost 500, 900
TO produce. There are half dozen
places in Washington where, if an
extensive fire should break out, by
burning up the documents with which
claims against the Government are
defended, would cause the Govern
ment to lose several times the cost
of good archive building"
More Legislation Needed.
Thus We have sketchy view of
past events leading up to the con-
struction of the National Archives
Building But not all stories end
with and they were married and
lived happily ever after Although
the building itself is an almost COM
pleted reality, there is no legislation
to cover its use, and unless some
thing is done soon Congress will ad-
journ and leave $l0000,000 invest
ment standing idly waiting. And the
intolerable conditions described by DR.
To folfhnpoh cnr,,auhat
in certain departments by the addi
tion of new buildings) will continue.
We are still depositing valuable rec
ords in odd places all over the city,
and the danger from crowding. rot
ting, excess heat and fire still exists
while the factor Of inacceSibility
mounts by geometrical progression as
the months 90 by.
Fortunately, however, in view OF
these conditions, there is a ray of
hope in that the House has already
passed the Bloom bill, H. R. 1910 pro-
viding for the administration of the
national archives. The Senate Com
mittee on the Library has reported
this out with recommendations for its
passage: but only after striking every
thing out of it except the enacting
clause and substituting the language
and provisions of the McKellar bill
S. 1851. II the Senate should pass
this amended version of the Bloom
bill it will then come back to the
House for approval. If the House
does not concur, the next step will
probably be the appointment of
committee of conferees to work out
some kind of compromise measure.
1t is sincerely to be hope that this
can be done and the necessary legis-
lation passed before Congress ad-
journs. An early appointment Of an
archivist is much to be desired, as he
can contribute materially to the build
ing's usefulness by advising on the
arrangement of the shelves, vaults and
space in general and thus expedite an
early and much needed use of the
building.
Must Be Right Kind Of Aid.
But legislation, any kind of legisla-
ton. does not solve the problem. 1t
is all-important that the right kind
of legislation be passed. A half
century or more in getting a building
is but a span compared to the CEN
turies ahead of us. With the expert
ence of the past, however brief, to
guide us, it seems altogether fitting
that some kind of public policy should
be adopted, at least to point the di-
rection of our journey. Perhaps this
might be called a national policy or
consciousness of permanency. AS a
people and as a Nation we are guided
too much by the demands of expedi-
ency In respect to our buildings and
our records we have not yet learned
to think in terms of centuries. Per-
haps we are too young to have had to
face such a problem. Perhaps in the
fullness of our youth we have been
too busy developing our resources
and exploiting our frontiers.
For example, it has been said by
those in a position to know that 1000
years hence Egyptian records will be
more legible than the records of our
present day history. Or. to put it in
another way, Egyptian records of 5000
years old will be in better condition
than American records only 1000
years old. In fact, under present con-
ditions, few of our records will do
we'll to last even 500 years. and prob
ably 100 years would be fairer esti-
mate
The Egyptians (and other ancients
as welD carved their records on stone
and wrote them with good ink on good
paper. They built their pyramids and
vaults in dry places where the aridity
would lessen erosion. They built
solidly and painstakingly. But we,
for the most part, write and print with
poor ink on poor paper made from
wood pulp which has been broken
down by acid. This acid. in turn, has
an affinity for the moisture of our