LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, AND JUDICIAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1917. HEARINGS CONDUCTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE, MESSRS. JOSEPH W. BYRNS (CHAIRMAN), THOMAS UPTON SISSON, JOHN M. EVANS, JAMES P. BUCHANAN, JAMES W. GOOD, AND WILLIAM H. STAFFORD, OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN CHARGE OF THE LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, AND JUDICIAL APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1917, ON THE DAYS NAMED. MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 1916. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. STATEMENT OF MR. HERBERT PUTNAM, LIBRARIAN. INCREASES IN SALARIES AND ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEES. [See p. 14.] Mr. BYRNS. Do you desire to make any general statement before questions are asked as to the various details of the estimates? Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Chairman, the bill shows very numerous changes. As shown on the left page of this printed statement that I have handed to you, they are all recommendations for increases of salary in minor positions from $1,000 down. I think it is impracticable to consider such a matter except in a broad way. To attempt to check through the bill and explain with regard to each particular position would unduly take your time, because it is not that the considerations apply to any one position as against another; they apply to all these positions in these lower salaries from $1,000 down to $360. With respect to these lower salaries there is a very considerable discrepancy between our service and that of the executive departments. I brought it to the attention of the committee two years ago and told the committee we had people who were working at salaries of $900, $800, $780, $600, $540, $480, and $360 who were practically stranded at those salaries. It was not a difficult thing in the earlier days to have people come in at these very minor salaries, because then you were enabling us to increase the force each year and there was a chance for promotion. But that time has passed; we are practically at a standstill, and the chance for promotion is very infrequent. In the meantime here are people struggling along at salaries of $600, $780, and $900-a young woman supporting a mother, a widow a child, a man supporting a family-and there is nothing ahead of them unless these positions can be regraded. 3 Now, two years ago your committee recognized these considerations in the case of 135 positions and they granted an increase in these of $5 a month each. The present recommendation would apply to 197 positions, including some of those 135, and including the Copyright Office as well as the Library. Generally it is a recommendation for an increase of the same amount, $5 a month. Now, if this were a business corporation such a matter could be considered in a broad way. If a corporation has a certain amount that it can afford to expend in increasing salaries and in recognizing good and long service, it would determine the amount and then say "We will consider positions from $360 to $780," or the reverse, from $1,200 down to $600. If they were considering the benefit to themselves alone they would probably recognize first the higher positions; I mean, the $1,200 positions, rather than the $360 positions. The direct benefit to our service would be greater if you would increase these five assistants from $900 to $1,200, than any other five, because they are in the reading-room service; they are men who have had college education, been with us several years and come in contact with the public and with the needs of Congress. It is important for us to hold those men. They have gained experience with the collections and we need them. The benefit resulting to our service would be greater in increasing those salaries than the ones at $600. But with reference to the exigencies of these people, the positions at $540, $600, $780, and $900 are the ones in which the most hardship is being experienced. As I say, I can speak of it only in a general way, but you know what it must be to attempt to live and maintain others in Washington at a salary of $780 a year. In the executive departments $900 is considered a normal salary for the most subordinate clerical service. Now, we have people at $780 who have had an expensive education; they have been with us for years, and they are supporting themselves and trying to support others at $780. We are criticized for that, and Congress is criticized, because this is the Library of Congress. I have heard Senators and Representatives say, "This is a shocking condition that Congress does not look after its own people better." I was responsible for the creation of these salaries, because when I came here 16 years ago there was a vast mass of material to be dealt with, and we could use a lot of people who had not much technical training. We could start them in. We could get even trained people, who valued the experience and prestige which would result by being with us; we could get such people to start in with such work, and as I had to ask for a very considerable increase of the force, which consisted then of only 130 people, I tried to keep down as closely as I could the total amount that we were asking for. So I said, "If you will give me these lower salaries, we can start in for a short while with this sort of work." With each year succeeding, for some years, the staff was increased and promotions were possible. But, as I have said, conditions are now different, and there is very little chance to promote. Now, that applies to those 197 positions-150 in the Library proper, and 47 in the Copyright Office. Of new positions, I have asked for five. Three of them are at $600 each, one to operate the motor cycle for the delivery of books, including the deliveries to Senators and Representatives, and two in the stacks, stack assistants. For some years we have had no increase of the force in the reading room and stacks. Meantime we have added several hundred the sand volumes to our collection. They extend into the new southeast stack, so that there is much more space to be covered and guarded; and we need these two additional assistants. The other two are at $900 each in the division known as the division of Semitic and Oriental Literature. That was established three years ago in connection with the gift to us of a collection of Jewish books, a gift from Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, a very valuable collection. When Mr. Schiff gave this collection I reported the gift to the committee and asked for the establishment of a division which should not only administer that collection, but also the Orientalia, and I submitted a schedule of positions, one at $3,000, one at $1,500, two at $900, and one at $360. I was asked then whether we could not get along without some of these minor positions at the start and I said, "Yes, we could," and at my suggestion the two positions at $900 cach were dropped out. Since that Mr. Schiff has given a second collection, the addition of which gives us, with one exception, the largest collection of Hebrew books in the United States. We have, in addition to the collection of Hebrew books, some Turkish books, some Arabic books, and some Sanskrit books. We have a remarkable collection of Chinese books and Japanese books. We have 40,000 Chinese books and we have what is not technically speaking oriental literature, but which for the purpose of administration is convenient to treat with the oriental literature, the greatest collection, outside of Russia, of Russian books, 80,000 volumes, all in Russian, except about 12,000, the result two-thirds of a gift and the remainder a purchase. That is the greatest collection of Russian literature, including Siberian literature, in the world outside of Russia, and is said to equal any in Russia. There are only two in Russia which would come into comparison with it. I can not with this little force adequately take care of these collections, but we want these two $900 positions to enable us to assign some part of this service to the treatment of this material, not Hebrew. We have a $3,000 position which I can swing back and forth between the Jewish and Oriental material. The same man can not handle them both, because a Hebrew scholar is one specialist, a man who can handle Chinese is another, and he in turn is in a different field of scholarship from a man who can handle Russian. The highest salary may have to swing back and forth. I do not ask for two overhead men and I do not ask for two at $1,500 each even at present, but the $900 people are to enable us to do the minor catalogue and clerical work, including incidental correspondence for these several groups during the next few years. Mr. BYRNS. Did you state the extent of that collection? Mr. PUTNAM. Of the Hebrew collection? Mr. BYRNS. Yes, sir. Mr. PUTNAM. It comprises now something over 20,000 volumes, irrespective of some manuscripts. There is likely to be another addition, which will make it the largest collection of printed Hebrew books in this country. Mr. STAFFORD. That is the Hebrew collection? Mr. BYRNS. Yes, sir. Mr. STAFFORD. What is the total number of volumes in this special division? Mr. PUTNAM, Hebrew, 20,000; Sanskrit, 5,000; Chinese, 40,000; Japanese, 5,000; Russian, 80,000; in all, between 150,000 and 160,000. I would not give any wrong impression about our ability to treat this collection with this small force. One of these days you should have a department of Slavis literature, including the Russian; that is, Slavic, Polish, Finnish, etc. You should have a department of oriental literature that would bring to our staff such an expert as they have in the British Museum, to interpret their oriental collection. Thus far our Chinese books have, whimsically enough, been of interest chiefly to the Department of Agriculture. They have had a man at work digging into our collection of Chinese books for descriptions of plants that they are bringing over here to domesticate. They want to know what Chinese observers wrote down about those plants two centuries ago, and by a search of our collection they found a great amount of very valuable description and comment. In anything that we have bought in the Chinese literature we have emphasized books of science and the great encyclopedias they are the greatest encyclopedists in the world, the Chinese-and books of geography and topography, but we have had given to us much other material. The foundation of the collection was due to gifts by Mr. Rockhill, our minister to China. The special Chinese ambassador, who came over to thank the Government for the remission of the Boxer indemnity, brought as a gift one great Chinese encyclopedia, comprising over 4,000 volumes, and we have had other gifts. That collection, according to Dr. Swingle, of the Department of Agriculture, whose bureau has particularly benefited by it, is worth untold sums to the scientific work of the Government in what it records of these early observations. one use thus far, but there are to be many more. That is Mr. BUCHANAN. How many volumes are there in the Library? Mr. PUTNAM. Somewhere over 2,250,000 of printed books and pamphlets; but that does not include the maps, 150,000, the manuscripts, which would run up to much over a million pieces, the prints that is, the etchings, engravings, photographs, and lithographs-which reach nearly 400,000, and the music, which reaches about 700,000. In the case of those four special collections, a large percentage of the material comes by gift and copyright. Mr. BUCHANAN. What is your estimate of the percentage that comes by gift? Mr. PUTNAM. In the case of prints by gift and copyright, over 95 per cent. In the case of music, it depends somewhat on the yearon the average, from 50 to 75 per cent. In one year, 1911, we undertook to estimate how much it would cost us to buy the music that came to us by copyright. It would have cost us $13,000 in that one year alone. You see, they copyright not only the piano compositions, but the great orchestral scores and the great operatic scores, the cost of which, if you could buy them, would run from $25 to $500 apiece. We get two copies by copyright. The collections are increasing yearly at the rate of something over 100,000 printed books and pamphlets and 60,000 other articles. Our increase in the books. and pamphlets is very largely explained by the transfers from other Government department libraries. Last year there came to us about 30.000 volumes in that way. In the early days, when I had occasion to appear before it, this committee was very solicitous that the department libraries should |