Mr. GILLETT. The new law charged an increased fee?

Mr. PUTNAM. It charges a uniform $1 fee, which includes the certificate. Before it was a 50-cent fee and they were not charged for the certificate unless they wanted the certificate. Now we furnish the certificate uniformly, which they ought to have, and charge $1. The register of copyrights is here, and, of course, would be very glad to discuss any of these details.

FURNITURE, STACKS, ETC.

Mr. BURLESON. Doctor, when the Library was turned over to you, it was furnished, was it not?

Mr. PUTNAM. No, sir.

Mr. BURLESON. To what extent did it lack furniture?

Mr. PUTNAM. As I recall it, the building in 1899 that might be said to be equipped with permanent equipment consisted of the reading room, the three bookstacks radiating from the reading room, a portion of the present Copyright Office, my office, a part of the present catalogue room; but the large curtains, as the architects call them, that have now been partly shelved in the manuscript division, in the Smithsonian division. in the map division, in the music division, in the print division, and in the card section were simply large spaces in which material lay in large part on the floor. That was the condition then of such a room [showing photograph].

Mr. BURLESON. How many rooms of that character were there? Mr. PUTNAM. They were all of that character, with the exception of the catalogue room, as I recall. There were desks in certain of these rooms. There were desks, for instance, in the rooms where the maps were, but the maps were piled on empty packing cases.

Mr. BURLESON. But the furniture in a library does not deteriorate to such an extent that it is worthless at the expiration of one year? Mr. PUTNAM. Oh, no, sir; but we did not have the furniture. Mr. BURLESON. You can use it continuously for a long period of years?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes.

Mr. BURLESON. Now, since you have been there do you know how much money you have spent for furniture?

Mr. PUTNAM. It has been $40,000 a year right along.

Mr. BURLESON. You have spent $480,000 for furniture in the 12 years you have been there?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes; but that includes various book and other stacks, the Smithsonian bookstack, for instance-not the southeast card stack, but the Smithsonian stack, which accommodates the Smithsonian collection of 100,000 volumes.

Mr. BURLESON. What year was that appropriated for?

Mr. PUTNAM. That was not specially appropriated for. That stack was built out of the furniture and shelving appropriation.

Mr. BURLESON. Was it a different appropriation from the furniture appropriation?

Mr. PUTNAM. Oh, no, sir. We have built all these stacks, with the exception of the southeast stack, out of that $40,000 a year. We have never had any appropriation for such purposes other than that. Mr. BURLESON. Is the Library furnished now?

Mr. PUTNAM. With the exception of possible slight extensions of some of these stacks and more cases, for instance, in the card section. We have now cases there which accommodate 25,000,000 cards, all built out of this appropriation.

Mr. BURLESON. Understand, Doctor, I want to give you everything you ought to have, but I just had a curiosity to know if we ever would finish furnishing the Library.

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes; and that is entirely natural, Mr. Chairman. I have always thought that this word "furniture" would perhaps be unintelligible and confusing. It is not furniture in the sense of desks and chairs, and so on, for which, chiefly, this $40,000 a year has been spent. It has been spent largely for the Smithsonian stack and all the shelving where you saw the manuscripts and the maps, music and prints.

Mr. BURLESON. You have now completed the shelving?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. There is not very much more space to shelve. Mr. BURLESON. Then there is a reasonable expectation that this item for furniture can be diminished?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes, sir. The cost of all the cases for the prints, all the cases for the maps, all the cases for the cards, and all the shelving has been met out of this annual appropriation.

COPYRIGHT OFFICE.

[See also p. 27.]

Mr. MCHENRY. Doctor, with reference to the copyright question, has there been any increase in the rate in recent years?

Mr. PUTNAM. The rate of fees?

Mr. MCHENRY. Yes.

Mr. PUTNAM. The act of 1909 stipulated for a uniform fee of $1 for each entry, which should include the certificate.

Mr. MCHENRY. What was the fee prior to that?

Mr. PUTNAM. Prior to that it was 50 cents for the entry and an additional 50 cents if they wished the certificate, but they were not required to take it and, as a rule, they did not take it, though they ought to have taken it, because it was their evidence of registration. Mr. MCHENRY. That is regulated by act of Congress?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes; the act of March 4, 1909, is the present act. Mr. MCHENRY. In a general way, what is the character of the copyrights, books from publishing houses, and music?

Mr. PUTNAM. It includes books, maps, music, prints, everything that might be called printed matter; periodicals, for instance, many of them. Of course, there is a great deal of material that is never copyrighted.

Mr. MCHENRY. Every copyright, of course, immediately resolves itself into a commercial proposition?

Mr. PUTNAM. It is property.

Mr. MCHENRY. Do you see any objection to increasing that rate from $1 to $1.25?

Mr. PUTNAM. It would seem very slight in the case either of a single book costing a large sum, even $10, or a book costing a small sum, of which a large edition was sold, but a larger uniform rate that applies indiscriminately would, of course, work a considerable

hardship; for instance, if the article was a mere photograph or a little pamphlet, or the number of a periodical-each number has to be entered separately. Of course, in one sense the fee is arbitrary, but $1 covers the service rendered, and I presume that was the chief purpose in fixing 50 cents for the entry and 50 cents for the certificate. You see, Mr. Chairman, the Copyright Office differs from the Patent Office in making no judicial examination. It is an office simply of registration.

INCREASES IN SALARIES.

[See also p. 37.]

Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. Putnam, on page 40 you ask for an increase in the salary of the assistant in charge of binding from $1,400 to $1,500. What is the reason for that increase?

Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Chairman, we have 12 divisions in which there is such a chief assistant, and seven of these assistants are paid $1.500 each. In the other five divisions the assistant is paid only $1,400. I have been trying to have those salaries equalized. Now, it is true that each rests on merits of its own, but, of course, the mere discrepancy causes some discouragement, and I have been trying to secure an equalization of those salaries. These four or five divisions are the binding, document, maps, prints, and Smithsonian divisions. Mr. BURLESON. Doctor, did you ever hear the suggestion made that equalization could be brought about by reducing as well as increasing your salaries?

Mr. PUTNAM. Yes; I have, sir.

Mr. BURLESON. That would be a very acceptable suggestion at this table.

Mr. PUTNAM. Doubtless. But I have had difficulty enough in holding on to the men who are getting the $1,500 salaries, which would make me very apprehensive about slicing theirs. Mr. Chairman, these men are high-grade men. They are college graduates, for the most part. They are mostly married men and have been in our service a long time, and it is a matter of only $100 a year for each one of the five divisions. Now, unless you care to go into the details— and I should not think you would-of each one of the five, I can only speak in general terms about them. As I have said to this committee before, I could give in the case of each man the work he is doing, the responsibility he is called upon to bear, and a good reason why he should receive $1,500, as compared with others in the Library service who are receiving that amount, or any Government official receiving that amount.

Mr. JOHNSON. In the reading room these assistants are now receiving $1,500, and you ask that two of them be increased to $1,800. Mr. PUTNAM. Those two cases, Mr. Chairman, I am very much mortified about, because it is my fault they were not submitted to your committee some years ago. Those two men are in turn the chief assistants to the superintendent of the reading room. One has been in our service since 1882 and the other since 1890-one for 30 years and the other for 22 years. Now, that is not in general a reason for an increase, because they might still be doing an inferior grade of work, and I have insisted to my people that we can not advance sal

aries merely on account of length of service. But the reading room is the center of our service to the public and to Congress, and the Government departments generally.

Mr. BURLESON. Who are those men?

Mr. PUTNAM. The two Morrisons-John Morrison and Hugh Morrison.

Mr. GILLETT. Are they brothers?

Mr. PUTNAM. No; no relation. The superintendent is necessarily engaged in the general work of administration. The responsive treatment to the reader falls upon one of these two men, and from 5 o'clock until 10 o'clock of each day-that is, for over one-third of the library day--one of these men is not merely the senior in charge of the reading room, but he is the senior officer in that library building, and they are getting but $1,500 a year apiece. They are men with families. They are doing admirable work, and there is no work in the entire library more exacting or more exhausting. They are on their feet almost continuously for the seven and one-half hours each day. Moreover, it would be utterly impossible to replace the knowledge they have acquired of those collections; and unless, Mr. Chairman, you have followed the operations of a library it would be impossible for you to conceive how much must depend upon the instinct and the personal knowledge, the memory, the accumulated sense, that such a man as each of these men has acquired by 22 years or 30 years in close touch with the collections. Two readers rarely approach a book by the same avenue. One comes from one direction and another from another direction, and the need and the language of each has to be interpreted, and these men must have a locative sense. and a locative memory to interpret them, as well as intelligence to convert the reader's expression of his needs into what will give the answer from our catalogues or from our shelves. Now, as to these particular men, I do not say they were men originally of high scholarly or academic education, though one of them had some college studies in Baltimore-and eight years' experience in the Peabody Library there. They have accumulated information and experience in the library which is a prodigious asset to us, and which we could not possibly replace, and they are now getting only the salary which in an executive bureau you are paying to an ordinary clerk-$1,500. Mr. JOHNSON. How long has it been since they were promoted? Mr. PUTNAM. They have not been promoted since they have been in the new building.

Mr. MCHENRY. Do they have charge of the congressional reading room?

Mr. PUTNAM. They have general supervision over all the service of that kind, of the printed books. Of course, there is an attendant in the congressional room, and there is an attendant at the Capitol, but it is these men who, under the superintendent of the reading room, are responsible for the issue of printed books there and to the office buildings, to the residences of Senators and Representatives, and the departments, and, in fact, for the entire issue of printed books of

every nature.

Mr. MCHENRY. For instance, when a Member of Congress goes into the Library and makes requisition for certain books and documents for the preparation of a speech, who gets that information out for us?

Mr. PUTNAM. It depends upon the amount of research it requires. Mr. MCHENRY. Does that come under the Messrs. Morrison? Mr. PUTNAM. If it is a request for a specific book, or some books upon an obvious subject, for instance, a request to "send me some books on the War of 1812" or the biography of John Sherman, or of Lee, or what not, the reading room will answer that. If it requires some search to gather together the material, it will be referred to our division of bibliography, which is engaged in research and in compiling lists. If it requires something more elaborate, before any report is made, it always goes up to the chief assistant librarian, who is the head of the reference side of the library work.

Mr. MCHENRY. What are the duties of this junior messenger provided for on page 40? I see he is only paid $360.

Mr. PUTNAM. Going for books and pushing trucks, and so on. He is a boy, a high-school graduate.

Mr. BYRNS. Doctor, I notice under that division, bibliography, reading rooms, periodicals, and documents, they are provided with a stenographer and typewriter, and have been for some years past. Do they have any general correspondence?

Mr. PUTNAM. Much; in some of them involved in the acquisition of material or of bibliographic information; in others involved in its service, including the compilation of these lists. For instance, a Senator or a Representative or any entitled inquirer may write to us and ask for a list of books on such-and-such subject, and that list has to be dictated, and so on. There is a good deal of that sort of work there.

Mr. BYRNS. In all of those divisions?

Mr. PUTNAM. In all of those divisions, besides the work that goes on in my office, the office of the chief assistant librarian, the office of the secretary, and the office of the chief clerk.

Mr. Chairman, I repeat the request I made at the beginning for an additional $1,000 clerk in the administrative offices and for a messenger to the chief assistant librarian. Now, there are four of us in the general administration offices there who have to have assistants, stenographers, clerks, and messengers. There are eight rooms theremy offices, the offices of the chief assistant librarian, the offices of the secretary, and the office of the chief clerk, and under the present provisions of law we have but five clerks. We are asking for seven. We have actually at work there, stenographers, clerks, and messengers, 11 people in all. Now, I need not say that we would not have drawn anybody from any other division to help out unless the work actually required it.

Mr. JOHNSON. On page 41 you ask for an increase in the salary of the chief of division from $2,000 to $2,500. What is the reason for that increase?

Mr. PUTNAM. The periodical division and the print division are two divisions in which I have recommended before, and repeat the recommendation, for an increase in the salary of the chief: not for the present man, but for a new man. I simply felt I could not get the right man for less.

Mr. JOHNSON. Now, I suppose the next increase in salary from $1.400 to $1,500 comes under the same head that you have already explained, namely, you want to equalize those salaries?

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