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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 758
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in typewritten form. In the absence of objection, the Chancellor declared the minutes approved.

THE ORVILLE WRIGHT MATTER.

The Secretary read the following letter from Senator Bingham:-

United States Senate

March 10, 1928

My dear Mr. Chief Justice:

As you will see from the inclosed copy of a resolution recently introduced in the House, a considerable amount of public interest has been manifested in the failure of the Smithsonian to appreciate the full significance of the first Wright machine as the first machine that ever permitted man to fly.

Orville Wright, like many inventors and pioneers, is more sensitive than the average person. Furthermore, not having had the advantages of a university education, he has not had occasion to become familiar with the manners and customs of strictly scientific folk.

Personally I believe that the man in the street and the great majority of Americans who know anything about it have the strongest sympathy with Orville Wright and feel that he has not been given a square deal by the Smithsonian and that consequently, his first plane has gone to England instead of going to our National Museum.

I have got the impression from the Connecticut papers and from various people with whom I have talked, that the Smithsonian has somewhat suffered in consequence. I realize that it is a very difficult question in view of the intense interest in the matter taken by Dr. Walcott. I was very fond of Dr. Walcott and admired him greatly. Like all the rest of us he had his prejudices and he was certainly not prejudiced in favor of the Wrights.

Would it not be wise for the Regents to make such a generous offer to Orville Wright as would satisfy the constantly increasing public-interested-in-aviation that the Smithsonian fully appreciates the immense significance of the first machine that actually enabled man to fly in contradistinction to the more or less successful models of self-propelled flying machines.

Cordially yours,
HIRAM BINGHAM

Hon. William H. Taft,
The Chief Justice,
Washington, D.C.

The Joint Resolution follows:-

H. J. Res.224
In the House of Representatives
February 29, 1928

Mr. McSwain introduced the following Joint Resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and ordered to be printed:-
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