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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 35 list has also been included in the biennial Blue Book, and hence it has been published three times every two years, whereas the lists of persons employed in other branches of the Government service hare been published but once in two years. The other table has been published since 1876, and gave every bid received as well as the award made on every article purchased by the Office at its regular lettings of contracts for supplies for the Indian Service, .which range in variety from. shoe laces to threshing ma-chines and from borax to beef. The awards for most articles were based on samples submitted and were often made to other than the lowest bidder. Consequently a mere list of the different prices quoted by each bidder was of little or no value, and the only information of any importance contained in the table was the price at which the con-tract was awarded. At its last session the Congress amended the laws which had re-quired the annual publication of. these two'tables and authorized the odssion altogether of the employee table and the modification of the contract table, so as to require the publication hereafter of the awards only. By this legislation several thousand dollars of expense for pre-paring and printing the tables will be savedevery year, and the Office will be relieved of the necessity of burdening its reports with cumber-some and almost useless matter, whereas a11 the particulars formerly published are just as accessible as ever in the records at headquarters in Washington. PROTECTION FOR ANTIQUITIES. After a lo6g and only partly successful struggle to stem the tide of vandalism, which was gradually destroying the most interesting relics of ancient art and architecture in this country, effective Federal legislation has been procured <'For the preservation of American antiquities." By an act of Congress of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 225), it is made a crime punishable by fine and imprisonment, or both, to "appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any historic or prehis-toric ruin or monument, or any object of antiquity, situated on lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States without the permission of the Secretary of the Department of the Government having jurisdiction over the lands on which said antiquities are situated." Section 3 reads as follows: That permits for the examination of ruins, the excavation of archa?oiogical sites, and the gathering of objects of antiquity upon the lands under their re spective jurisdictions may be granted by the Secretaries of the Interfor, Agri-culture, and War to institutions which they may deem properly qualified to con-duct such examination, excavation, or gathering, subject to such rules and regu-lations as they may prescribe: Provided, That the examinations, excavations, und gatherings are undertaken for the benefit of teputable museums, universi- |