Mr. GILLETT. There is a vacancy now?

Mr. PUTNAM. There is a vacancy, to which I have assigned, temporarily, a man who was at work on classification; he is conducting the division. But I want to put a man in there permanently whom I could not get for $2,000.

Mr. GILLETT. Did this man resign because of the inadequacy of salary?

Mr. PUTNAM. Well, I said to him that he himself would never improve in our service; he was not satisfactory in the position, and it was a departure by mutual agreement. Those are the only two positions for which an increase is asked, with the exception of the five chief assistants in divisions, whom I have wished to get upon a basis of $1,500 each. We have lost one of those men.

Mr. BINGHAM. Do you not expect to lose men like every other employment does?

Mr. PUTNAM. Quite so.

Mr. BINGHAM. Do you think we ought to compete with the gifts and generosity of people who are not limited by what we call an

income or taxation?

Mr. PUTNAM. It is not the privately endowed institutions, as a rule, that take our men. The people that we lose in general are people in our Catalogue Division receiving $900 or $1,000 a year, who go to places at $1,200, possibly in some other branch of the government service. Now, those losses I am resigned to, as I have said to this committee, but the men at the head of a division and their chief assistants represent, after a few years with us, an accumulated experience that is of the utmost importance in a library of research. Mr. BINGHAM. But some of your divisions are minor, as regards the number of subordinates, yet you call them divisions, as though they were great institutions.

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. There are, of course, 91 people in one division and only 5 in another, but the two highest people are the people who are depended upon to do the most technical work and to be of personal aid to the research investigator. Now, this man whom we lost from the Division of Documents was a loss. His departure was a loss of ten years' accumulated experience and knowledge of that material.

Mr. GILLETT. How much was he getting?

Mr. PUTNAM. One thousand four hundred dollars; I asked for $1,500 to put those places on the same basis as equivalent places in other divisions.

Mr. GILLETT. Would that have kept him, probably?

Mr. PUTNAM. I think it would have kept him, I do not say permanently, but the feeling of inequality in salary as against others in the service has, of course, made these men restless. These recommendations are survivals. For some years past I have been repeating them. I have hesitated each year to repeat them because it seems almost impertinent, as though I were urging the matter, indifferent to the apparent negative of the committee, yet I felt that I could consistently do nothing less, as it is a matter of equalization and not of new positions.

Mr. GILLETT. Do some of these assistants now receive $1,500?

Mr. PUTNAM. Oh, yes; $1,500 is paid in certain of the divisions, but not in these remaining ones.

Mr. GILLETT. These are the only ones where they do not receive $1,500?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes.

Mr. GILLETT. How many people are there in these divisions?

Mr. PUTNAM. Well, maps and charts, that is one of them; there are only five people there.

Mr. GILLETT. How about prints?

Mr. PUTNAM. There are only five people there.

Mr. GILLETT. And binding?

Mr. PUTNAM. There is one man and his assistant.

This is the

assistant in charge of the binding work, and he is a college-bred man; he was formerly librarian of the state library in New Hampshire and has been in our service now for thirteen years.

Mr. GILLETT. Documents; is that a large or small division?

Mr. PUTNAM. A small division, but they handle a tremendous mass of material.

Mr. GILLETT. How many there?

Mr. PUTNAM. They have only five people.

Mr. GILLETT. It is only the small ones that are left?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes; the small ones that are left.

Mr. BINGHAM. You have not in any wise increased the hours of labor of your people, have you?

Mr. PUTNAM. No; not theoretically. Of course they work from 9 to 4.30.

SALARY OF LIBRARIAN.

[Also page 12.]

Mr. GILLETT. What do the librarians of the large libraries receive in salaries? Can you tell us?

Mr. PUTNAM. They receive and I could only give specific instances that are brought to my attention

Mr. GILLETT. Well, only a few librarians.

Mr. PUTNAM. I think at Boston they are not yet paying over $6,000; at Chicago, I think, they are now paying $7,500; at all events they expressed their intention to pay that amount to the new man who was appointed there last year; at Brooklyn they pay $7,500; at New York the salary is not published, but is understood to be $10,000. Mr. GILLETT. What library is that?

Mr. PUTNAM. That is the New York Public Library; the Brooklyn library is distinct. Those are the largest salaries paid; I know of no other librarian who receives over $6,000; there are others that pay $5,000.

Mr. BINGHAM. Is there anywhere a complete exhibit of the whole expenditures in the library?

Mr. PUTNAM. It appears in the reports.

Mr. BINGHAM. You have the franking privilege?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. BINGHAM. Have you ever estimated its value?

Mr. PUTNAM. No; we never have.

Mr. BINGHAM. But everything else is there but that?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. It is on pages 11 and 12 of the report.

CHIEF, DIVISION OF MAPS AND CHARTS.

Mr. GILLETT. What is the chief of the division of maps and charts paid?

Mr. PUTNAM. Three thousand dollars.

COPYRIGHT OFFICE.

[Also page 11.]

Mr. GILLETT. Let us ask him about these copyright clerks. Mr. PUTNAM. The explanation of that increase in salary is this: A man who had been receiving $2,000 was advanced temporarily to $2,500, this being the salary provided for the assistant register of copyrights, whose appointment I deferred because I could not get a suitable man for $2,500 and was hoping for $3,000. Later the committee gave it. This man held the position at $2,500 temporarily; then when I appointed a new man as assistant register I was not able to put him back to $2,000 because, in the meantime, I had to get a man to be chief bookkeeper, who could not be got for less than $2,000, and I put him at the $2,000 salary, dropping back the other to $1,800. Now, he took his risk of a reduction, yet he is worth $2,000. He is at the head of the correspondence work and he is doing work the equivalent of which is paid for at $2,000. The proposed increase of $200 is to restore him to the salary that he received before that temporary change.

NEW POSITIONS.

Mr. GILLETT. Well, now, I think we can go to the first page of new positions.

Mr. PUTNAM. These new positions were asked for in the estimates of the present year and explanation made therefor. If I may be permitted, I would like to emphasize this, that there are certain of them that we really can not do without. These two positions in the copyright office

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION.

Mr. BINGHAM. Before you go to that, let me make one inquiry. The great body of your subordinate force, who are under fixed compensation, and have been for some years, although occasionally increased, are they the same body of men, the same subordinate force? Mr. PUTNAM. Oh, they come and go.

Mr. BINGHAM. But they do not come and go in that sense. They come and go, of course, when they find better opportunities. But, as a rule, is your subordinate force a continuing force?

Mr. PUTNAM. I should say so; yes. It is in the positions from $1,200 down that we lose people, as a rule; we very seldom lose anyone above that.

Mr. BINGHAM. Do you lose many $1,200 men?

Mr. PUTNAM. Occasionally we lose some one who goes to the librarianship, perhaps, of a bureau, but we do not lose very many. Mr. BINGHAM. If you lose them, you lose them here in the departments, do you not?

Mr. PUTNAM. We are very apt to, and then that is not a loss to the Government.

Mr. GILLETT. And a great many of them go into your service as a training for library work, do they not?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. One of our men, at $1,200, went to the Bureau of Standards to become librarian there, for instance, and I believe he gets $1,400. We lose men in that way. The first two positions under "administration" I explained two years ago.

Mr. BINGHAM. When you speak of "administration" do you speak of the force immediately under you?

Mr. PUTNAM. And in the office of the chief clerk. My own office, my secretary's office, and the office of the chief clerk.

Mr. BINGHAM. How many have you in that office under you and under your chief clerk?

Mr. PUTNAM. Well, excluding messengers, there are seven people actually at work there under the chief clerk, the secretary, the chief assistant librarian, and myself.

Mr. BINGHAM. What do you call "actually at work? Mr. PUTNAM. Well, you asked how many we have. than the law provides. We are obliged to borrow.

We have more

Mr. BINGHAM. You make details from other departments as you need them?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes.

Mr. BINGHAM. But you continuously employ seven?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes; more than the law provides, of course.

Mr. GILLETT. How many does the law provide?

Mr. PUTNAM. The law provides, as you see on page 1, a clerk at $2,000, two stenographers, a messenger, and a junior messenger. Mr. GILLETT. That makes five?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes.

Mr. GILLETT. And you constantly employ eight?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. I have three stenographers under my secretary; I have a messenger in my office; my secretary has what they call a junior messenger, and the chief assistant librarian has a junior messenger, a boy. The chief clerk has a man at $1,200, whom he must have, an assistant keeping the service records, and a stenographer. He has to borrow the man I refer to. In connection with supplies and messenger service he has also another man and a boy. That makes eleven in all.

Mr. BINGHAM. You borrow them when you need them?

Mr. PUTNAM. As a fact, we have to have them every day right along, and of course we are handicapping, just so much, the other divisions.

Mr. GILLETT. Why does he need two stenographers?

Mr. PUTNAM. I have three and he has one, only one stenographer. Mr. GILLETT. Why do you need three?

Mr. PUTNAM. It is simply the mass of correspondence and the files to be kept; that is all.

Mr. GILLETT. You personally do not have files, do you?

Mr. PUTNAM. I am including my secretary and I am including the correspondence that the chief assistant librarian has to dictate. You see, my secretary is dictating, the chief assistant librarian is dictating, and I am dictating.

Mr. GILLETT. Is there enough correspondence to keep three stenographers going?

Mr. PUTNAM. Well, you see, besides the dictation, there is the typewriting and there are the files of the office. There is material for letters coming back and forth from these various divisions. The number of actual letters in the course of a year is somewhat over 30,000. But they are busy incessantly-so busy that they do not get through with the library day. Now, we employ them very reluctantly, because we can employ some of them only at the expense of other divisions. The chief clerk's office has, of course, to make up the pay rolls, handle applications, keep the service records, and check all vouchers for expenditures; since his office must keep an account of all the expenditures and know the state of every appropriation, including the allotment for printing and binding, his office must see to all supplies. One man is exclusively employed in looking after the supplies and requisitions on the Government Printing Office under the allotment of $202,000; and one man is exclusively at work, practically, on vouchers and the appropriation accounts.

Mr. BINGHAM. He is like the chief clerk in any big establishment? Mr. PUTNAM. Yes.

Mr. BINGHAM. But he has no discretion, in anywise?

Mr. PUTNAM. No.

Mr. BINGHAM. What we pass to-day fixes his disbursements? Mr. PUTNAM. Of course he is not the disbursing officer, you understand. The disbursing officer has his own office independent of the chief clerk's office; but the chief clerk's office has to handle all the vouchers just the same, must make up the pay rolls, and, of course, to his office also come all the minor details with reference to the service.

SECRETARY TO THE LIBRARIAN.

Mr. GILLETT. What is the librarian's secretary? What does she do? Mr. PUTNAM. Just what a secretary would be supposed to do; she handles all the correspondence in the first instance, opens all the mail. Mr. GILLETT. Is she a stenographer? Do you use her as a stenographer?

Mr. PUTNAM. I advanced her from the position of chief stenographer in my office. She fills in occasionally; she sometimes herself has to take stenographic dictation. In detail, the duties of these two positions which are asked for are set forth in my hearings of year before last.

Mr. BINGHAM. Did you ask for them then?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes, sir. The next two positions have to do with the publications of the library. They also are asked for in my hearings of year before last, and fully explained.

TWO ASSISTANTS, READING ROOM.

Mr. PUTNAM. The next are two assistants, at $600 each, for the reading room. Now, this new book stack has come into use

Mr. BINGHAM. It is in use now?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. That means, of course, that while it has given. us great relief in the arrangement of material it means also that the