DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

DIVISION OF GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Apr. 3, 1994.

My dear Sir:

We have received four small boxes containing vertebrate remains from the Coast Range of California. The specimens belong to the University of California and are sent on by Dr. A. C. Lawson for identification and return. The bones are supposed to belong to the saber-tooth lion. I write to ask if it will be practicable for you to examine the material and return it promptly, as Dr. Lawson wishes a report upon it to incorporate in his work on the Coast Range. If it is not convenient for you to make the examination I will ask Mr. Luces to look at the material.

Prof. O. C. Marsh,
New Haven, Conn.

New Haven, Conn., May 14, 1894.

Dear Mr. Walcott: -

I write to congratulate you on the honor you
have received in being nominated by the President as the Director of the
U.S. Geological Survey. The fact that the present Director in his resigna-
tion recommended you as his successor adds to the honor, as it is evidence
that you deserve such promotion.

As a paleontologist, you know that paleontology is a key to geology,
and, as head of the Survey, I am sure you will keep this fact constantly
in mind, and that all departments of that science will receive due consid-
eration. at your hand
Such being the case, I can promise you and your administration
loyal support.

Charles D. Walcott,
U. S. Geological Survey.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 21, 1894.

Dear Professor Marsh:

I wish to thank you for your congratulations on
my nomination for the Directorship of the Survey. If I
am confirmed it is my intention in administering the office
to see that all the departments of the Survey shall receive
consideration. At the present time the pressure for areal
and economic work is very great, but I hope that with better
times we shall have a restoration of a portion at least
of the appropriation for paleontology.

Prof. O. C. Marsh,

New Haven Ct.

( Copy )

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Geology and
DIVISION OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

May 21, 1894.

Dear Professor Marsh:

I wish to thank you for your congratulations on my
nomination for the Directorship of the Survey. If I am confirmed
it is my intention in administering the office to see that all the
departments of the Survey shall receive consideration. At the present
time the pressure for areal and economic work is very great, but I
hope with better times we shall have a restoration of a portion at
least of the appropriation for paleontology.

Very truly yours,

Prof. O. C. Marsh,

New Haven, Ct.

( Copy )

( Confidential )

New Haven, Conn., May 28, 1894.

Dear Mr. Walcott, -

On my return last Saturday after a short absence, I found awaiting me the enclosed protest, accompanied by a letter from which I quote the following paragraph: -

"I write to inform you that numerous protests are going to Congress from geologists and from politicians against the continuation of the old methods of Maj. Powell, which seem likely to follow the confirmation of Walcott. This movement is, I am told, favorable to the views of the New York senators, at least, those of Senator Hill, and will possibly put a check on the unseemly haste which has marked this affair on the part of Powell and Walcott, seconded by the president. Geologists from the following states are engaged in this protest, New York, Penn., Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, S. Dak., Minnesota, Texas, and probably from Alabama, Mich., and New Hampshire. We shall be glad of your cooperation, by sending a line on your own account to Senator Martin, chairman of the committee to whom the nomination was referred, or by signing the accompanying."

You have perhaps already received this important information, and if so, kindly return my letter and the enclosed protest to me. You know from my previous letter that I have no sympathy with the movement thus indicated.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 31, 1994.

Prof. O. C. Marsh,

New Haven, Conn.

Dear Prof. Marsh:

Yours of May 28th, containing copy of the protest, received. I had already received a copy from a gentleman in this city. The various protests, telegrams, letters, etc., were received by the Committee, but apparently, without materially influencing it, as the nomination was reported and confirmed without opposition.

You had best have the proposal to have the drawings made for your Sauropoda volume sent in as early as possible.

Circular Relating to Preparation and Publication of
Geologic Folios.

It is important that the work of engraving and editing
the folios of the Geologic Atlas of the United States should be
expedited. A chief cause of delay in publication is found in the
practice of sending proofs of maps and sections intended for the
Atlas to geologists, and this practice will hereafter be discon-
tinued except in those cases where questions arise, which in the
judgment of the Editor of Geologic Maps require conference with
the author.

Accordingly the Editor of Geologic Maps and the Chief
Engraver will be held responsible for the execution of precise
copies of the originals submitted, with due allowance for technical
difficulties of reproduction. And the manuscript maps and sections
submitted by the geologists should be complete and accurate as to
facts, and also neat and distinct in execution.

As many topographic maps are being revised it sometimes
occurs that geology is delineated upon a base representing an
earlier stage of the map. This results in confusion and delay.
As soon as may be after his return from the field the geologist

intending to prepare manuscript for publication as a folio of the
Atlas, should address to the Director a request that all correc-
tions to the topographic base, including any that he may submit,
be taken up, and that he be supplied with copies of the revised
map.

The base map upon which the geologic boundaries are
drawn should be approved by the Editor of Topographic Maps as the
latest copy, embodying all corrections in the office.

Various methods of preparing geologic copy for the en-
graver have been tried in the past and it has been found that the
requirements for accurate and speedy engraving are satisfied only
by an unmounted base, without coloring except in crayon, and with
boundaries, faults, and symbols distinctly inked.

Director.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Aug. 14, 1949.

Prof. O. C. Marsh,

New Haven, Conn.

Dear Sir:

For the vertebrate paleontologic work under your charge
there has been allotted, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895,
the sum of $2,000, which amount shall cover the salaries and all
expenses whatsoever that may be incurred in the prosecution of
the work.

In the conduct of the work you are authorized to employ
such assistance, professional and other, as may be necessary,
provided that, for periods of service exceeding one week, the
rate of pay shall not be greater than $60 per month or $2 per
day, without special permission.

Your special work will be the study of the collections pro-
cured in past years and the continued preparation for publication
of the monographs based upon those collections.

CIRCULAR.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

WASHINGTON, D. C., July 23, 1894.

The following communication from the Public Printer, together with a letter from the Secretary to heads of bureaus, is published for the information and guidance of officers and employés of this Department.

Chief Clerk.

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC PRINTER,

WASHINGTON, D. C., June 28, 1894.

To the Honorable

The Secretary of the Interior.

SIR: It is my desire to carry into effect certain reforms relating to the ordering of printing from your Department and the furnishing of copy for the same, and I beg at this time to call your attention to two matters that are a frequent cause of needless delay and expense in the execution of printing.

1. Furnishing imperfect copy.

The practice various Department and Bureau officials have fallen into of furnishing hasty or imperfect copy to the Public Printer, with the evident purpose of revising the same in proof, has grown into a most serious abuse. Whatever may have been the need for the beginning and growth of this practice there exists no excuse for its continuance. With the facilities afforded by typewriting machines copy can be so readily prepared for revision and correction that the "editing" of printed proofs has been practically abandoned by commercial printing houses and is deemed as needless as it is wasteful of time and money. During late years certain Departments in connection with their work in this

office have depleted their allotment of the appropriation for public
printing tens of thousands of dollars merely for revision of proofs.
Frequently the original cost of composition has been doubled and quad-
rupled in this way. Nor is this the only evil. The type pages are often
required to be held for months awaiting the return of proofs, encum-
bering the office and requiring double the amount of type for the exe-
cution of the public printing that would be necessary under proper
conditions; besides, the typographical appearance of work subjected
to free editing after being put in type is seriously marred by irregular
spacing necessarily made in correction, and the work of final revision
is enormously increased.

The absence of any necessity for such revision of proofs is clearly
demonstrated by the practice of the two houses of Congress in this
respect. For many years all copy for work ordered by the clerks of
either House of Congress has been subjected to final revision before
being sent to the Public Printer, and, as a result, the work so ordered
is always performed more expeditiously and cheaply than work ordered
by the Department.

2. *Selection of costly paper for unimportant blanks.*

The duty of the Public Printer to exercise "proper regard to economy" in executing printing and binding and determining the selection of material for the same (R. S. 3790), requires reference to the growing practice of ordering the printing of unimportant blanks upon the costliest paper. While, as a matter of courtesy, the Public Printer has always extended to the proper officers of Departments freedom of choice in the selection of materials, it is clearly the interest of Departments to exercise the most careful supervision in making such selection with a view to economical results. I have put into operation a most careful and accurate system of estimates and charges for Department work, and I wish it to be understood that your allotment of the appropriation for public printing will receive the benefit of any economy exercised in the direction indicated. I will be happy to cooperate in any effort to enable you to correct a system that tends to much extravagance by furnishing such information in regard to the quality and cost of paper and its adaptation to certain kinds of work as may at any time be desired. I shall also be pleased if you will issue such instructions as will secure cordial cooperation among the various officials of your Department charged with ordering printing in aid of such efforts as I may deemit expedient to make in securing greater economy in department printing. I am satisfied that improved typographical results and great saving in allotment charges can be secured by a more careful and expert supervision of printing requisitions especially with reference to the matters herein indicated.

Very respectfully,

TH. E. BENEDICT,
*Public Printer.*

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

WASHINGTON, D. C., *July 11, 1894*.

SIR:

I have to call your attention to a letter addressed to me by the Pub-
lic Printer (a copy of which is herewith inclosed), reciting the fact that
grave abuses exist in the various Departments in furnishing hasty and
imperfect copy to the Public Printer, necessitating the furnishing of
numerous copies of proofs which sometimes doubles and quadruples the
original cost of composition.

That proof is often held up for months requiring double the amount
of type for the execution of Public Printing and that the tendency
toward free editing mars the typographical appearance of the work
when printed, and further that the printing of unimportant blanks on
expensive paper is frequently called for.

I am informed these practices exist in the various branches of this
Department and wishing to cooperate with the Public Printer in the
reforms he desires to inaugurate and in which I heartily concur, you are
instructed to require of your subordinates a careful preparation of all
copy hereafter prepared in your Bureau, so that proof will not be neces-
sary only in extreme cases and give such instructions that will prevent
the use of expensive paper for unimportant blanks.

Very respectfully,

Secretary.