have managed to get along. In my annual report I believe I made use of some such expression as this: That we are putting our best foot forward to keep clean and presentable the parts of the building that the public principally see; but the parts that are not Mr. GILLETT. The others get dirty? Mr. GREEN. The others get dirty. We are dirty in the rear, and present a pretty respectable clean front. That is a perfectly natural condition. If you go around through that building you can find a lot of dirt in places that it would be very desirable to keep a little cleaner. I am not asking for a high polish anywhere, you know. The women and the people who are judges of housekeeping tell me that I keep that building cleaner than any building they know anything about. But I do not let them see all of the building if I can help it. There ought to be a larger force, however. These women work hard. I have a good force. I ought not to have anything less; I can not afford it. I have to keep everybody at work; and if they are not able to work I do not keep the women. The work must be done. So it is entirely a proper thing to give that small increase by this time. MAIL AND DELIVERY WAGON. Mr. BINGHAM. All right. and delivery wagon, repair of boiler vaults." Mr. GREEN. Yes. 66 Now we go to page 60-" including mail of east driveway pavement, and repair Mr. BINGHAM. Is that a new wagon? Mr. GREEN. No; it is not a new wagon. It is a transfer of the wagon-delivery service to my department instead of keeping it under the librarian. You know I run the elevators and I do the mechanical side of the work of the Library of Congress. Up to this time the delivery wagon has been handled and run by the library itself, by Mr. Putnam, and it does not fit there very well. They do not know how to handle the mechanical wagon very well, nor even how to drive a horse. Mr. BINGHAM. The librarian still runs the wagons, does he not? Mr. GREEN. He does, theoretically. Mr. BINGHAM. But now you want to run an independent wagon? Mr. GREEN. No; I want them transferred to my department. In fact, I am doing it now for him. Mr. BINGHAM. Does he reduce his claim for that line of work? Mr. LIVINGSTON. I think you will find that in the remarks of Mr. Putnam he said he wanted that wagon turned over to Mr. Green. FURNITURE. Mr. GREEN. Yes. Let me remark here that you will come by and by to the furniture appropriation, and I want to say that since I made the estimate last summer I think I can reduce that somewhat. Mr. BINGHAM. You can? Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir. I can reduce the estimate of $25,000, which was the same as we had last year. Mr. BINGHAM. What is it this year? Mr. GREEN. This year it is $25,000. What I meant by "last year was the last appropriation-the present one. Mr. BINGHAM. What are you going to reduce it to? Mr. GREEN. I want to reduce it to $20,000. I have $25,000 in the estimates, and I wish to reduce that by the sum of $5,000. I believe we can get along with that. It is the sort of estimate in which I have to use a good deal of precaution. REPAIR OF DRIVEWAY. Mr. GILLETT. What is this $5,000 increase-" repair of east driveway pavement and repair of boiler vaults? Mr. GREEN. The driveway pavement on the east side of the building is cracked all to pieces. It has been down there now for twelve or fourteen years. Mr. GILLETT. What is it, cement? Mr. GREEN. Asphalt. Mr. GILLETT. An asphalt pavement? Mr. GREEN. An asphalt pavement; yes. Mr. GILLETT. Do you mean the driveway that comes up from the street to the building? Mr. GREEN. Yes. Mr. GILLETT. What is it used for-the heavy teaming? Mr. GREEN. Yes. Mr. GILLETT. Freight? Mr. GREEN. All the freight. Mr. BINGHAM. It is in pretty bad shape, you say? Mr. GREEN. Pretty bad shape. Mr. GILLETT. How much will that cost? Mr. GREEN. Three thousand eight hundred dollars—that is, for repairing it. Mr. BINGHAM. It must be in bad shape. Mr. GILLETT. How long is it? It can not be more than 20 rods long, is it? Mr. GREEN. Twenty rods would be 330 feet, would it not? Mr. GILLETT. Yes. Mr. GREEN. No; it is not as long as that. Mr. GILLETT. Is not $3,800 a great deal for that? Mr. GREEN. The $3,800 is for the driveway that comes from the street up to the building. Mr. GILLETT. Yes. Mr. BINGHAM. It is as you enter the half-moon circle? Mr. GREEN. Yes. Mr. GILLETT. Would it cost $3,800 to do that? It is not more than a couple of hundred feet. Mr. GREEN. I know; but it is a couple of hundred feet square. Mr. GILLETT. Oh, no! It is not square. It is not 100 feet wide. Mr. GREEN. Oh, yes; it is. I figured that up. Mr. GILLETT. Your driveway is 200 feet wide? Mr. GREEN. The driveway runs the whole width of the east pavilion. It is not simply a driveway, you know; it is the whole yard, running from the building out to the power house and then going out with two driveways-one on each side. The repaving includes waterproofing. Mr. GILLETT. Well, I suppose you know. That is a fair price, is it? Mr. GREEN. It is a fair estimate of the cost. Mr. GILLETT. Does it really need to be done this year, or could you get along without it another year? Mr. GREEN. We can get along another year. It is in awful shape. I think if you will go and look at it yourselves, you will be convinced of the necessity of renewing it. REPAIR OF BOILER VAULTS. Mr. GILLETT. I will go there and look at it. How about the repair of the boiler vaults? Mr. GREEN. The item for repairing the boiler vaults is simply to put them into decent shape. Mr. BINGHAM. They are in bad shape, are they? Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir. We are making the power-plant connection now. We took half the boilers from the boiler vault. We had 16 boilers in there. Mr. GILLETT. Where is that-over by the chimney? Mr. GREEN. Just at the base of the chimney, on the east side, underground. Transformers and apparatus have been installed for sending the power from the new power station to the Library. I refer to the central power station that you have been building down here for the Capitol and all the buildings on Capitol Hill, under Mr. Woods. All of the work was done under the special appropriation you made. They brought in their tunnel and put in the transformers these big electric engines for sending the current up to run our building and furnish the power and light for it from that power house. That resulted in our taking out our boilers. They were sold at auction, and we managed pretty well to get them out without any expense to that appropriation. That, of course, cleaned out and more or less knocked to pieces half the boiler vault, the space being taken by these new things. Some repairs should be made there to make the place presentable. They will cost about $500. Mr. GILLETT. All right. MAIL AND DELIVERY WAGON (AGAIN). [Also pages 14, 19.] Mr. GREEN. Did you get through with the delivery-wagon question? Mr. GILLETT. Is there anything else you want to tell us about that? How much does it cost? Mr. GREEN. For fuel and lights? Mr. GILLETT. No; how much does the mail and delivery wagon cost? Mr. GREEN. I want to add to my appropriation for that. That is under this head that we were talking about. Mr. GILLETT. Yes; exactly. Mr. GREEN. The amount is $500. That is on page 60. Mr. GILLETT. What does that mean-$500 for what? For taking care of it for running it? Mr. GREEN. Yes; for repairs and maintenance of it. Mr. GREEN. It is an electric machine. We really have two of them. Under the Library they have a general fund out of which they have maintained a delivery wagon. Mr. GILLETT. Mr. Putnam told us all about that. We do not care to go into that again. Mr. GREEN. As a result of it all, we really have three wagons there. There is a horse wagon (a simple little old thing) and there is a cheap gasoline wagon. That is all they were able to buy a while ago; but it soon gave out, and got in pretty bad shape. It is a weak old thing. We manage to keep it in repair so that we can use it as an auxiliary. and one horse wagon, Mr. LIVINGSTON. You have two motor wagons which you want $500 to repair? Mr. GREEN. No; simply to help keep them in running order. Mr. GREEN. Yes; $500 may be too much for it, or it may not be half enough. I do not know what sort of luck we are going to have. Mr. GILLETT. This does not include the running? Mr. GREEN. No; the running of it is done by a couple of men, who are referred to in my estimates for the personnel. Mr. GILLETT. That is all we need to bother with that, I think. Mr. BINGHAM. You do not cover the personnel in your estimates, then? Mr. GREEN. Oh, yes. We submit an estimate of two skilled laborers. Mr. GILLETT. They should be taken away from somewhere else, should they not? Mr. GREEN. One of them should probably be taken away, or one and a half, or something like that, from Mr. Putnam, unless he has reasons for retaining them which he has explained to you. But in a way I have increased the total estimate by two skilled laborers, because I need the force. There will have to be a little change next year in the personnel in regard to the power plant. It has not yet been connected. We are getting along with it. There will have to be a little change. We can knock off the firemen for next year altogether, and an assistant engineer or two, and certain changes of that kind, and I shall have to consult Mr. Woods as to how we shall run. Mr. GILLETT. Those changes ought to get into this bill. Mr. GREEN. Yes. Mr. GILLETT. Have you not done that yet? Mr. GREEN. This estimate is on the old basis. I could not tell how to make it otherwise. HEATING AND POWER. The CLERK. Up to this time all of the expenses for maintaining the Senate and House Office buildings have been carried in lump sums on the sundry civil appropriation bill. That subcommittee suggested to Mr. Woods last session that he, in cooperation with Mr. Green and his own assistants, should prepare an organization for the operation of the central power house. It is going to involve the picking up of an engineer and fire force over in the Senate wing of this building, in the House wing of this building, and in the Library of Congress. I do not know just how far he has progressed with that, but I do not think he has yet perfected any arrangement. Mr. GILLETT. It ought to be done, ought it not? We should not be appropriating for engineers that we are not going to use. Mr. GREEN. I talked with Mr. Woods about the matter the other day. I came over and saw him to find out how he was getting along, and how we were going to work it out. There will be a little change. It will not be very complicated. It is very simple so far as I am concerned. Mr. GILLETT. I should think you could drop quite a large part of your force if you formerly had sixteen boilers there, could you not? Mr. GREEN. Yes. Of course we used only eight of them at a time, and we have eight of them left. We have taken out half of them already. Mr. GILLETT. What did you leave eight for? Mr. GREEN. We had a double set of boilers over there. We only ran half of them at a time. Mr. GILLETT. I did not suppose you would have any boilers now. Will you retain any of them? Mr. GREEN. We will not run any after they furnish the steam. Mr. GILLETT. Exactly. Why have you left them there? Mr. GREEN. They have not yet furnished the steam. The connection is not complete. They are having a little difficulty in getting everything adjusted. They are getting along first-rate, but the new plant is not yet furnishing us everything. It is only during the past three or four weeks that they have been furnishing us even the electricity. But we still have our own force and these same men to run the other things. We are keeping up steam. We run the pumps for our hydraulic elevator service, because electricity will not do that. Mr. GILLETT. As soon as they put in that connection you will have quite a force that will be dropped, will you not? Mr. GREEN. There will be a small force dropped. For instance, we will not need the nine firemen. Mr. GILLETT. And you will not need your three assistant engineers? Mr. GREEN. We will not need some of the engineers either. Mr. GILLETT. How about your electrician, your assistant electrician, your machinist, etc.? Mr. GREEN. We shall need them all the time. Mr. GILLETT. Why? Mr. GREEN. Because our machinists are needed for the machinery in the building, and the electricians for the electrical power and electrical service in the building. There will be some reduction. Of course our coal will all go out. We shall not have to buy any coal. But we are running now on the old basis. Mr. GILLETT. Have you not put in your estimates an appropriation for coal? Mr. GREEN. It is in here at the same figure as before. Mr. GREEN. Because we did not know any other way to estimate it. Mr. GILLETT. Exactly. Then why should we leave it in? |