APPROPRIATION BILL, 1916 HEARINGS BEFORE SUBCOMMITTEE OF HOUSE COMMITTEE P 19 1924 CONSISTING OF MESSES. JOSEPH T. JOHNSON (Chairman), JOSEPH W. BYRNS, EUGENE IN CHARGE OF THE LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, AND JUDICIAL SIXTY-THIRD CONGRESS WASHINGTON APPROPRIATION BILL. HEARINGS CONDUCTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE, MESSRS. JOSEPH T. JOHNSON (CHAIRMAN), JOSEPH W. BYRNS, EUGENE F. KINKEAD, WILLIAM P. BORLAND, JAMES W. GOOD, AND WILLIAM M. CALDER, OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN CHARGE OF THE LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, AND JUDICIAL APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1916, ON THE DAYS NAMED. FRIDAY, November 27, 1914. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. STATEMENT OF MR. HERBERT PUTNAM, LIBRARIAN. Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. Librarian, we want to finish this bill and have it ready when Congress meets. Mr. PUTNAM. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Mr. JOHNSON. Therefore, as we have before us all the hearings on the previous bills, I suggest that wherever you have an item in the bill that you have already discussed with the committee, we will not take up any time in discussing it now. NEW EMPLOYEES. I see that you have asked for only three additional people in your estimates, at $600 each. Do you desire to make any statement about that? Mr. PUTNAM. Two of them, Mr. Chairman, are for the stacks subsidiary to the reading room, to get books on call. We have needed them and asked for them for two years past, and we need them more now. The third is a $600 employee to operate our motor cycle in connection with the delivery of books, especially to the residences of Senators and Representatives. We are very much embarrassed to take care of the increased demand for that sort of service. INCREASES IN SALARIES. All of the increases of salary that are recommended are in the nature of those requested last year, and then explained-that is, for the purpose of regrading the positions under $1,200. In the case of 135 positions Congress granted for this year an advance of $5 per month, while in most of the cases we had recommended $10. This year we have resubmitted in part those recommendations, and we have added certain others. I think, with a view to what you have just stated, Mr. Chairman, that where an explanation was submitted to you last year it would not be necessary to repeat it at length this year, I need merely say that as to these recommendations the question involved is one of policy. There is a very considerable and a rather mortifying discrepancy between the Library service and that of other departments of the Government in the pay of these minor positions. I think that the only just way is to treat them in groups, but how far in any one year Congress can go in remedying the discrepancy is, of course, a matter purely for this committee to determine. I can merely submit the statement. Mr. JOHNSON. It is a question of policy. Mr. PUTNAM. Yes, sir; and the cases speak for themselves. With this addition, however, that as to part of the cases, where a number of people in a group have come to us with considerable education which has been expensive for them to acquire and others have been with us a great number of years, I should like the privilege of incorporating in the record this memorandum emphasizing those considerations. Mr. JOHNSON. Just turn that over to the stenographer for insertion in the record. (The statement referred to is as follows:) Five positions in the reading room at $900 are recommended for increase to $1,200. The service connected with these positions is now being performed by five as sistants, four of whom, at $960, are detailed from other divisions. They These five positions are at the delivery desk in the main reading room. are concerned with the direct service of books and aid to readers, not merely to the general public, but to Senators and Representatives presenting requests or inquiries there. Even with the best effort of the higher officials to deal with the more difficult questions, a large percentage of these must be handled by these men. To handle them efficiently and discreetly they must have had the equivalent of a college education, library training or experience, tact, and address. At $900 we have never succeeded in keeping such men. Now we can no longer even get them. Certain letters received will sufficiently indicate the situation. I quote from three of them: Letter of J. I. Wyer, jr., director New York Library School, December 14. 1912: "I know that in times past we have occasionally been able to recommend a man for your reading room who has seemed to have suitable equipment and who was willing to begin at $900. I declare that we may never be able to do this again. Certainly at the present time I know of no one to suggest to you." Letter from J. C. M. Hanson, associate director University of Chicago Libraries, December 19, 1912: "I have delayed my answer to your inquiry of December 12 in the hope that some person might come to my notice likely to qualify for the position mentioned. If a woman were wanted I could supply several names, but it seems almost hopeless now to secure a man with some education and training for $900 a year, at any rate here in Chicago * * Letter of Miss J. A. Rathbone, vice director School of Library Science, Pratt Institute, January 6, 1913: "You may be sure that your letter of December 12 would not have gone so long unanswered if I had had any man to recommend to you. Not one of our men graduates whom I think at all fitted for the work at Washington is getting as little as $900, so I can be of no assistance in the matter." |