Obligations and expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1938 The total obligations and expenditures amounted to $708,236 and the reserved funds to $8,000, leaving unobligated balances totaling $764. Financial returns to the Government much greater than those indicated above as miscellaneous receipts have been effected during the year by The National Archives. They are, however, not susceptible to measurement and tabulation. It is impossible, for example, specifically to state the value of having the Nation's most significant archival materials safely housed and readily accessible. Numerous instances have proved that Government employees' time has been saved and efficiency promoted by the ease of finding in The National Archives documents that were formerly among files relegated to remote storage buildings or kept under crowded conditions. Pension and other records useful in protecting the Government against unwarranted claims, personnel records of value for pay roll claims. cases or for retirement purposes, and purchase records helpful both in settling accounts and in studying current and future needs are only a few examples of types of records whose preservation and availability is of definite financial value to the Government. Space is at a premium in many cities where the Government has offices, but it is especially so in Washington, as is illustrated by the establishment of some of the units of the Social Security Board in Baltimore. Accordingly space must be put to its most effective use. The efficient appraisal by The National Archives of records of questionable value and the subsequent destruction of useless material occupying office and storage space has already effected a saving in space equivalent to the capacity of several buildings and a saving in dollars that is difficult to estimate. Space rented by the Government in private buildings, for example, costs an average of nearly a dollar a square foot a year, and space in Government-owned buildings represents not only great cost in construction and upkeep but also incalculable value in terms of the utility to which the space can be put. The saving of space elsewhere is also achieved by the transfer of valuable records to the National Archives Building. In several cases inactive records have been moved from offices where they were actually in the way of employees and were impairing their efficiency. The removal of records from containers that either can be used again or have salvage value produces another type of financial saving. Thousands of file cabinets and other containers were emptied by the appraisal and destruction of records without further value and were made available for current use. Containers in which records were transferred to the National Archives Building were returned if still useful to the agency of origin or to the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department. The actual value of such containers returned to the agencies during the fiscal year for further use is estimated at nearly $25,000, but if the agencies had had to purchase new equipment to care for current accumulations the cost of such equipment would have been approximately $97,000. The Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1939, approved May 23, 1938 (Public, No. 534, 75th Cong.), provides $775,000 for the salaries and expenses and $14,000 for the printing and binding of The National Archives for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1939. OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE OF OFFICERS AT VALLEY FORGE, 1778 By a resolution of February 3, 1778, the Continental Congress required all officers of the Army to subscribe to a new oath of allegiance. The oaths of Nathanael Greene, Benedict Arnold, and William Alexander, "the Earl of Stirling," contained in a volume received from the War Department, are reproduced above. 38-1 Craite d'alliance eventuelle es deffensive Roi Crea Chrétien et ler) Ctate-unin de l'Amerique Septentri= onale, lavins New-Hamspiline, la Baye de Hanachunel, Rhode Island Connecticut, Newyork, New-Jersey, Pensylvanie, Delaware, Maryland, Virginie, Caroline Septentrionale), Caroline Alcrivionale et Georgie); ayant conclu ce jourd hay un traite 'amitié, de bonne intelligence l'avantage recipraque) de leura Sujeta et veur, ils out cou devoir prendre most Christian King and the United States of North America, to wit, How hampshire, Alanachusetts Bay Whoderisland, Connecticut, Newyork, New Jersey. Sennsylvania, Delaware., Maryland, Virginia Heath Carolina South Carolina, and Georgia, having this day concluded a Treaty of amity) and Commerce for the réciprocal novrulage of their Subjects and Citizens have thought it necesary to take into comidination the means of Strong thoming thine engagements and of rondring them weful to the safety and hauquality of the two partien, particulary in case Great Britain in Resentment of that. connection and of the good dence vohich is the object of the Said Greaty should break the Peace with france, either by direct pestitites, or by hindring her navigation, manner contrary to the Rights of Nations, and the Peace Subsisting between the tros Cromms: and his Majesty and the Said united - France, font en l'attaquant Statin having resolved in that Case? to join their Conncils and efforts against the Enterprises of their common Inamy, maniere contraire au droit dex your renenrer leura liaisons, er de ter pendre utilen à la Sureté etala franquilité der deux Partier, notammen daun le cas où la Grande Bretagne, haine de cer mêmer liaison. et de la bonne correspondance qui forment l'objet du dit traité, Te) porteroit a compre la aver las hostitement, Sout en troublant tou et a la paix Subsistante entre lea TREATY OF ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE, 1778 On February 6, 1778, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, commissioners for the United States, and Conrad Alexandre Gérard, representing the King of France, signed a treaty of alliance that was a decisive factor in the achievement of American independence. The first and last pages of the original of this treaty, which was received from the Department of State, are reproduced above and on the opposite page. |