"I respectfully suggest that provisions for suites of offices for international commissions and the like be made in the scheme now contemplated to provide adequate quarters for the Department of State."

What has been said above relates to the inadequacy of the plan upon which the present building is constructed. In addition to this, however, the great development of the War and Navy Departments has forced them to encroach from time to time upon the space originally designed for the Department of State until now this Department is constrained within limits not originally intended to be placed upon it. In the meantime, however, this Department has also passed through a period of great expansion, the business having nearly doubled, as measured by the dimensions of the bound correspondence. The extreme compression under which all the bureaus of the Department are now suffering is made evident from the following statements of the chief clerk and the bureau chiefs:

I. STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF CLERK.

"In compliance with your request for my judgment as to the necessity for more space to meet the requirements of the business of the Department of State, I beg to say that the Department needs at least as much again space as it now has for convenient and economic performance of its work.

"The index bureau alone needs four times the space it now has, and this need will grow year by year. At this time there is no space whatever for the proper installation of a card-index system, one of the things most needed in the Department and for the good of the service.

"The Department has practically no space for the storage of its publications and for the suitable wrapping and mailing of the same.

"The bureau of rolls and library is so congested that work in that bureau is hindered and highly unsatisfactory both to the Department and to the public. In fact, this is true of every bureau in the Department. The attempt to avoid the necessity of renting buildings outside by crowding people and material together in the Department has resulted in a congestion that is bad for the public service, expensive, unhealthful for the employees, and in every sense unbusinesslike.

"I have had an order from the Secretary to rent a fireproof building outside for the purpose of relieving a part of this congestion, but up to this time I have been unable to find such an one conveniently located. A suitable building for the storage of such overflow as we have would cost in rental more than the Department is able to pay without an appropriation from Congress for that purpose. Yet something must be done. More space is absolutely necessary. The business of the Department has increased at least 80 per cent in the last ten years without any increase of space. It is no longer a theoretical question. It is a condition that confronts the Department which must be met by a new building or by renting buildings outside."

II. STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF OF THE DIPLOMATIC BUREAU.

"Speaking for the Diplomatic Bureau, I can say we are too crowded and should have at least one additional room for clerks, and a case room. In my own room, which is not much larger than a good-sized bedchamber, there are three employed besides myself. In view of the confidential character of much of the work that passes through his hands, for the secrecy of which he is responsible, and the number of business visitors who call upon him and who interfere with the work of the other clerks in the room, the Chief of the Diplomatic Bureau should have a room to himself.

"Block 167 is a large one, but I doubt the advisability of placing three Executive Departments in one building. It would be only a question of time when the history of the State, War, and Navy building would be repeated. At one time the State Department had the entire south wing of the present building. By degrees one whole floor and portions of two others have been taken from it."

III. STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF OF THE CONSULAR BUREAU.

"The Consular Bureau, as at present organized, occupies four rooms. To organize the Bureau so as to transact its business in a proper manner, in the proposed new building for this Department, I recommend the following:

"One room for the Chief of the Bureau.

"One smaller room for a waiting room. "One room for library and maps.

"Three large rooms for the clerical force.

"One smaller room for the mail clerk, making seven rooms in all.

"The rooms should be well lighted, be provided with as much wall space and as many shelved closets as practicable, and each room, exclusive of the library, should have a lavatory.

"The waiting room is very necessary for the purpose of relieving the Chief of the Bureau from interruptions which materially interfere with the prompt discharge of his duties. Besides, many interviews with the Chief of the Bureau are confidential and should not be conducted in the presence of disinterested persons.

"The room to be used as library and map room and as a depository for manuscript reports, etc., is greatly needed, in order that all these books of reports may be brought together in one place where they can be more conveniently consulted.

"It is very desirable that the typewriters should occupy a room separate from persons employed in investigating and drafting correspondence, and with this in view, and allowing for the increase which must necessarily take place in the clerical force, an additional room for this force should be provided.

"If examinations of consular officers are to be conducted by the Bureau, it would be very desirable to have still another room for this purpose. It is hardly fair to the applicants or to the Government to have these examinations take place in the working rooms of the Bureau, where maps hang in full view, and where questions to which the examinations relate are apt to be discussed in the hearing of the person under examination by the clerks in the performance of their duties.

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Including the room for examinations, a total number of eight rooms appears to be necessary for this Bureau."

IV. STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF INDEXES AND ARCHIVES.

"Until we have a new building with abundant space there can be no systematic businesslike arrangement of the archives of this Department and no satisfactory distribution of the clerical force.

"The rooms of this Bureau are at present scattered on three floors, which results in inconvenience, delays, and loss of time. Many of the clerks have to work in small alcoves with discomfort and loss of time, because they are interrupted when records are wanted from those alcoves, which is constantly the case.

"The archives are, of course, constantly increasing, and to shelve what we already have it became necessary to build cross cases in the rooms and erect other cases in the corridor, which causes much inconvenience and loss of time. These cases are all full now, and new space can be found only by occupying the walls of the corridor. "A new building is absolutely necessary for the proper conduct of this Bureau, and without it there will continue to be many inconveniences, delays, and loss of much time; that is, of Government money."

V. STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF ACCOUNTS.

"Speaking for the Bureau of Accounts, I can say that the rooms allotted its use are inadequate for properly conducting the business of the same. The passport division and stationery division, both connected with this Bureau, are very much crowded and also have not sufficient room for handling the business connected with each. The files of the passport division, which are complete from the inception of the department, and therefore valuable, take up considerable of the available space for filing purposes, and the question of room for future files is a question of concern.

Coming to the Bureau proper, and that which its name implies, Bureau of Accounts, it is charged with the examination and preparation for settlement of the diplomatic and consular accounts, and all other accounts connected with the financial business of the Department and commission under its control, as well as the disbursement of the various appropriations under the control of the Secretary of State, also the trust funds of the Department, which are a large item. In disposing of the business that comes to this Bureau a large amount of detail work is required, and to those acquainted with the facts it is recognized that the Bureau has not sufficient room to handle the business at all times as promptly as might be desired. In addition to not having sufficient room for the clerical force of the Bureau, the question of storage space for the files is now one of much concern.'

VI. STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF ROLLS AND LIBRARY.

"There can be no question of the pressing necessity for additional accommoda tions-such a need has been uncomfortably realized for fifteen years or more.

"Many thousands of volumes belonging to the library and indispensable to the Department are permanently piled up in the cages in the corridor on this floor. The newspaper files which the Department felt constrained some years ago to retain as essential to the performance of its business from among many others sent then to the Library of Congress are kept in the cellar in a damp room, and many very val uable documents belonging to the Department and in the custody of this Bureau are similarly deposited, while the entire original records of the two Alabama Claims Commissions are stored in wooden cases in the mail room of the Department in the basement, where they surely do not belong, greatly to their danger and to the inconvenience of this office. Meanwhile space here in the offices of the Bureau proper is altogether inadequate to the safe and convenient care of its invaluable records-the treaties of the United States with other powers, the laws of the United States, proclamations and Executive orders of the Presidents, the Revolutionary archives, and countless records of international claims commissions, and the confusion becomes daily, of course, more discouraging. There is no more space for cases anywhere.

"If my opinion is required respecting the site, etc., of any new building proposed to meet the existing situation here, I think the building should be centrally located and easily accessible; but I do not believe that one building should be erected to accommodate the principal executive offices, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice,' but that each should be separately housed and this building be left for the accommodation of the two military departments."

VII. STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF FOREIGN COMMERCE.

"So far as this Bureau is concerned, the need for additional space is confined at present to the room occupied by the storage and mailing department. This room has been badly crowded for sometime. Should the Bureau continue to be attached to the State Department, its growth will doubtless necessitate additional space for clerical force and library within a very few years."

VIII. STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF OF BUREAU OF APPOINTMENTS.

"I have the honor to say that there should be two additional rooms provided for the Bureau, one for the files and one for the chief. We at present occupy only one room, with the walls covered by cases 14 feet deep, and containing three large desks, a table 10 feet long, a typewriter table, a press copying stand, a bookcase, a large case for the great seal, and a washstand. We are so crowded that there is barely room enough to pass between the desks, and we have three large cases of files in the adjoining room which contain papers that must be consulted from time to time. The convenience which would result from consolidating the files in one room is apparent, and the business confided to the chief of the Bureau is of such a confidential nature that it should not be subjected to the possibility of exposure to visitors, and he should be provided with a separate room.'

The foregoing statements show clearly the great and pressing needs of this Department for additional accommodations.

With regard to the proposition for the Department of State to occupy a building to be erected upon block 167, Washington, D. C., jointly with the Chief Executive offices and the offices of the Department of Justice, it may be said that it is doubtful if the amount of space in question would be adequate for the accommodation of all the offices included in this proposition. While there would be great convenience in the juxtaposition of the offices of the Department of State with those of the Chief Executive, it is doubtful if the building could be so planned as to include the three Departments named without imposing limitations upon all which would be soon outgrown.

It is probable that two Departments would require all the space contained in such a building as could be erected on block 167. It should here be mentioned that ample provision should be made for the ever-increasing archives of this Department under the same roof with its general offices. The storage of the diplomatic correspondence in a hall of records, to be located at some distance from the Department, would greatly embarrass the business of the Department, it having constantly to refer to its files of correspondence, which must be close at hand and so arranged as to be immediately accessible. This last consideration is of great importance, as the archives will be always increasing in volume, and ample provision should be made for the future. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Senator CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS,

DAVID J. HILL, Acting Secretary.

United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D. C., February 4, 1902.

SIR: Your letter of the 31st ultimo asks me, on behalf of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, for any information I may be able to give it "as to the necessity of additional accommodations for the Department of Justice, and as to the advisability of accommodating the Department in a building to be devoted to the Chief Excutive offices, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice, the same to be erected upon block 167, Washington, D. C.," and I reply to the two points in the order given:

First. As to the necessity for additional accommodations. As to this, I think nothing more is required than has already been said, unless I say in addition to what was presented to Congress at the time the original bill for the erection of a new building was under consideration, that at the time temporary quarters were provided for the Department of Justice and its old building torn down, it was supposed that the erection of a new building would be begun within a reasonable period. Since then, however, it was found necessary to relieve the crowded condition of the temporary quarters by renting the building adjoining that occupied by the Department on K street NW., known as 1000 Vermont avenue, as well as a suite of rooms in the Bond Building. With these additions the quarters now occupied by the Department will probably be sufficient to accommodate it until the proposed new building can be erected.

Second. As to the advisability of accommodating the Department in a building to be occupied by the chief executive offices, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice, to be erected upon block 167, I say that it would greatly facilitate the transaction of public business to have the Department of Justice so close to the Executive offices and the Department of State, with both of which it has occasion to communicate frequently. The proposed site is as convenient of access to the Treasury, War, and Navy departments, with which the Department of Justice is also obliged to be in constant communication, as that in which the site of the former Department building is located on the east side of Lafayette Square. It seems evident, also, that it should be cheaper to erect one building of the proper character in which to house these three Departments than to build three buildings of the same character, though smaller, to accommodate them separately.

Respectfully,

Hon. CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS,

P. C. KNOX, Attorney-General.

Chairman Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, United States Senate.

APPENDIX D.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR,
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
Washington, March 18, 1906.

MY DEAR SIR: In the limited time at my disposal I have obtained approximate figures as to the probable size and cost of a building for the housing of this Department and its several bureaus and now submit them for consideration.

The gross floor space at present occupied by the Department entire comprises 328,284 square feet, exclusive of the Bureau of Standards, which is entirely omitted from this consideration. The Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Bureau of Fisheries at present occupy Government buildings. These two Bureaus occupy approximately 100,000 square feet of floor area, which would of course be available for the use of other Departments of the Government upon the erection of a Department building sufficiently large to permit their removal thereto. If considered advisable, these Bureaus might continue in their present quarters, although the full benefit and economy of administration would not be fully met in such an event.

The Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Manufactures do not at present occupy all of the space in the Emery Building, as the force in the Bureau of the Census is now at its minimum, but during the taking of the Thirteenth Census, preparation for which will begin within the next two years, it will be necessary not only to occupy the equivalent of all the space available in the Emery building, but it is estimated that 125,000 square feet additional will be necessary.

With the exception of the Bureau of the Census, the quarters occupied by the Department are seriously overcrowded, and in several of the building the hallways are used for files, storage purposes, blueprinting, and even as quarters for clerks and other employees engaged upon desk work, while two Bureaus are using basement space by courtesy of landlords. The Department is without any room for the use of committees and boards which meet annually. Doors have been removed, portions of halls partitioned off, and old furniture has been replaced in some cases by new and more compact desks and cases in the endeavor to make present quarters meet requirements.

Estimate A shows the calculation upon which is based the size of a Department building sufficient for the accommodation of all of the bureaus with the exception of the Bureau of Standards, and large enough to permit of the increased work of the Thirteenth Census being performed without the necessity of renting additional quarters. After the completion of the Thirteenth Census the space thus vacated would afford a chance for the natural growth of the present bureaus of the Department. No consideration has been given in these estimates of the addition to this Department of new bureaus nor to extraordinary increase in the size of the present bureaus. A very rough and hasty calculation has been obtained from the Office of the Supervising Architect as to the cost of a building giving the desired amount of floor space. (See Estimate B.) These figures are to be taken as only the roughest approximation. I also inclose a table giving some comparative figures of the size and cost of a few representative private and public buildings in this city, with a column showing the size of each building as compared with the Department building as calculated in Estimate A. On this same sheet is given the approximate number of employees in the public buildings mentioned. There is also inclosed a rough sketch showing the approximate shape and area of squares Nos. 226 and 227, upon which a Department building of the size mentioned would occupy the entire space with the exception of a strip of parking of an average width of 12 feet around the entire building, the building itself being four stories and basement in height, and extending over the present location of E street which necessarily would be obliterated at this point.

Should it be considered advisable at the present time to erect a Government building for the housing of the renting bureaus of the Department only, instead of providing for the larger building before mentioned, the calculation given in Estimate C shows the size of building which would be necessary for that purpose, and also a rough calculation of the cost, figured upon the same basis as the larger building. This smaller building would accommodate the present bureaus occupying rented quarters, leaving the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Bureau of Fisheries, and the Bureau of Standards in their present buildings and making no provision whatever for increased force in the Bureau of the Census nor for any increase beyond the expansion immediately and imperatively necessary at present. No allowance is made for even the natural growth of the Department during the erection of a building.