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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION   599
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MADE BY BAKER-VAWTER CO. 
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It will be seen that all of these agencies come strictly under "education," "the general and formal term for schooling of whatever sort." To place the Smithsonian Institution in a group and on a par with these establishments would be entirely anomalous, as its work and functions are in a different plane. It is engaged in research work and in the publication of the results secured.

The following considerations are also submitted:

1. A large part of the sucess which the Institution has had in carrying on and aiding research work has been due to the fact that varying political fortunes have no effect on its direction. Its Secretary is selected by the Board of Regents provided for in the Act creating the Institution. It is thus enabled to pursue a definite and continuous policy which is unaffected by political changes.

2. During the seventy-seven years of its existence as an independent establishment the Smithsonian Institution has acquired a reputation and standing throughout the civilized world as a center of scientific endeavor in America. To place it in the position of a subordinate member of an educational department would impair its standing and so relegate it to an unimportant position far from the intention of its founder, of the Act of Congress establishing the Institution, and of those who has since made large gifts to it principally because it was independent of political and sectarian domination.

3. Freedom of action, one of its chief assets in various scientific activities and in international undertakings, would be entirely lost if the Institution were placed under the administration of a political unit of the Government.

4. The public association of the Institution's name with the proposed Department of Education and Welfare has already defeated efforts to increase its endowment from private foundations. Transferring the Institution to the