Legislative reference service. Taxation and tariff: Value of property taxed, amount raised by taxation, and total military and naval expenditures in Great Britain, France, and Italy. Per capita tax levied by the various States. List of countries imposing an income tax, those that give publicity to income-tax returns, and those that have repealed the publicity feature. Statistics showing tax reductions in the States during the last four or five years. Digest of State laws relating to taxation and revenue since 1922. Duty on oil and gasoline and tax on gasoline. Data on the effect of the tariff on the price of wheat in the Statistics on number of taxpayers in the United States. Transportation and shipping: Statistics of foreign shipbuilding during past five years. Statistics on the earnings of British shipping during the last 50 years. History of interstate commerce act and amendments. Data on the cost of operating United States ships under the Data on river or inland transportation in foreign countries, Miscellaneous: Summary history of the Granger movement. Summary of articles for and against the Johnson immigration bill. Teapot Dome case. Proportional representation plans. Information concerning the War Industries Board and the Status of Porto Rico under the United States Government Alien and sedition laws of the United States from 1789 to date. After this review of the routine activities of the year I would revert with emphasis to the endowments which have made it notable. The interest of such contributions to the public welfare is always enhanced by information as to the identity, the grocery business of Sprague, Warner & Co. in Cl that city were identified most of his civic and I tivities. Mrs. Coolidge inherited from father an love for art, as well as a rare munificence. Havi own family what are the sufferings of the sick, sh sums toward hospital care and the treatment of early shown a decided talent for music and found during times of anxiety and grief, she has foster grateful devotion and lavish generosity. The p of Mrs. Coolidge's husband, the late Dr. Fi Coolidge, distinguished surgeon, determined in 19 Pittsfield, Mass., as a place of residence for the fa years later, after Mrs. Coolidge had lost, within husband, her father, and her mother, she dedicat her Pittsfield estate, with 40 acres of ground, as a for crippled children, besides endowing and fu Pittsfield, the Frederic Shurtleff Coolidge Mem Incipient Consumptives. Her interest in settleme Coolidge to found a settlement school in Pittsfield past given large sums toward the work of the bures research conducted by her cousin, Mrs. Wesley C. York. The house of her parents in Chicago Mr as a Home for Presbyterian Nurses, and her own C which her father built for her, she gave as a Ho Nurses. She is also endowing a room in the new dormitory of the Harvard Medical School. In memory of her father, a graduate and enthusiastic supporter of Yale University, her mother and she in 1917 gave to that institution "Albert Arnold Sprague Memorial Hall," a building which houses the entire music department of the university, equipped with lecture rooms, a library, and an auditorium seating more than 700. In memory of her father and mother Mrs. Coolidge gave to the Chicago Civic Orchestra the sum of $200,000, known as the Albert and Nancy Sprague Memorial Fund, the income of which provides pensions for members of the orchestra. In musical circles Mrs. Coolidge has become internationally known through her founding of the Berkshire Music Colony and the Berkshire Festivals of Chamber Music, held from 1918 until 1924 at her "Temple" on South Mountain, the Pittsfield estate of her son, Albert Sprague Coolidge, who is a gifted musical amateur as well as an able research worker in chemistry and instructor at Harvard. The Pittsfield festivals grew out of the Berkshire Quartet (originally consisting of Hugo Kortschak, Herman Felber, jr., Clarence Evans, and Emmeran Stoeber), which Mrs. Coolidge formed in 1916 to provide her and her friends with an opportunity to hear chamber music. She often joined in the performance of works demanding a pianist besides the string players. In connection with the Berkshire festivals, Mrs. Coolidge has offered since 1918, the Berkshire prize of $1,000 for works of chamber music. This prize has been won, among others, by Ernest Bloch, G. Francesco Malipiero, Leo Weiner, and in 1924 by the American, Wallingford Riegger. In alternating years, instead of offering a prize Mrs. Coolidge has commissioned various composers, American and European, to write for her compositions which were played at the festivals or at the special concerts given by Mrs. Coolidge here and abroad. Among the latter are works by Eugene Goossens, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Henry Eichheim, and Maurice Ravel. Mrs. Coolidge has given performances of these works before invited guests at Rome, London, and Paris. She founded the Festival Quartet of South Mountain and the Elshuco Trio, of which Willem Willeke is the violoncellist and leader. Mrs. Coolidge is giving the services of the Elshuco Trio every winter for a series of chamber music concerts at Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Williams, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Hamilton, Wellesley, and Amherst. Respectfully submitted. HERBERT PUTNAM, The Honorable the PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE. REPRESENTATIVES. As the building grows older more care is year to keep it in the usual good condition ly increased funds, and to anticipate, when culties and deteriorations that may occur. and one painter, in addition to the regular are constantly engaged on the more ur restoration. With the completion of the auditorium music in October, 1925, and the new bod northeast court, which it is expected to con some additions to the custody and cleaning necessary for the maintenance of our service for in the estimates for 1927. Special work accomplished during the yea following repainting: Walls and ceilings of halls on three floors; ceilings and side walls tain and southeast pavilion, first story ( sion); ceiling and side walls of the west ha curtain, first story (division of maps), ar private office of the chief of that division in the northwest pavilion, first story; ceilings and side walls of two rooms in the west north curtain, basement (office of the executive assistant); ceiling and side walls of the binding division in the east south curtain, basement; the continuation of the repainting and redecoration of ceilings and side walls of the west main halls, basement, and repainting of various smaller spaces in the building. A special appropriation of $5,000 was again available for this repainting, and an additional appropriation of $5,000 was granted for 1926; but while many portions of the building still require repainting, it is believed that an appropriation of $2,500 asked by the Architect of the Capitol for 1927 will suffice for that year. The leather couches and armchairs in the House reading room were reupholstered. New and improved lighting fixtures were installed in the catalogue, accessions, and classification divisions. NEW ROOMS The offices of the executive assistant were rearranged and a new partition built to make one additional room; and by the building of partitions (especially designed in this office) in the northwest pavilion, first story, a new office was arranged for the chief, division of maps. One section of the legislative reference division was then moved into the remaining portion of this pavilion. ENGINEER DEPARTMENT The personnel of the engineer department is under the control and on the pay rolls of the Architect of the Capitol, but is on duty in the Library Building under the immediate direction of this office. During the year this department was constantly occupied with repairs and improvements to the building and mechanical equipment and with cabinet work, including the making and repairing of furniture and the recaning of chairs. To guard against serious leakage, repairs to the copper roof and the gutters around the dome were made; also to the skylight roof over the machine shop. Such repairs |