(Witness: Scott.) Mr. Scort. No. The index clerk, I think, usues it in connection with his indexing business, and what use the file clerk makes of it I do not know. I know they are very anxious about getting it. The CHAIRMAN. They have it for the purpose of keeping their files complete, I suppose, of all these documents? Mr. SCOTT. I think they undertake to keep a copy of everything that is published. I have never examined their files, but I believe that is true. The CHAIRMAN. Who directs the binding of a volume like that [indicating]? I am using, for illustration, a book called "Senate Reports, third session Fifty-third Congress, 1894-95, volume 1". That seems to bind up about everything. Mr. SCOTT. That is a copy of an old book, left out of the old reserve documents. The reserve documents are now held by the Government Printer in stitched form and are never bound unless a Member or a Senator orders it done direct; not through our office and not through the Secretary of the Senate's office, but there is a provision in the law by which a Member orders his reserve documents bound direct. Mr. SAMUEL. It is a special matter? Mr. SCOTT. It is done by writing a letter to the Government Printer asking him to bind the reserve documents. Under the old law--I think the new law took effect in 1895-the reserve documents were bound in that shape, and for the Members of the House they came to our office and were folded and distributed as the Member directed. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Now, this is a compilation of Senate reports and other material? Mr. SCOTT. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. That is, this particular volume that we are using for illustration? Mr. SCOTT. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Who, on the part of the House, designates what shall be printed in a particular volume of House documents; do you know? That is, who has charge of that particular matter? Mr. FLOOD. Printing or binding? The CHAIRMAN. Well, of binding together in one volume that is what I mean—or determining what shall be bound in one volume. Mr. SCOTT. That seems to be left to the Government Printing Office, so far as I know. I do not know anything about the reserve documents, except that I merely brought that copy in to show you that a part of this book is composed of valuable material. The CHAIRMAN. Yes; that is true. Mr. SCOTT. You see it contains the banking and currency reports, the report on national bank notes, etc., in the back; then these reports in the first part here are not of any particular value to anyone, but they are bound consecutively. The CHAIRMAN. In consecutive numbers? Mr. SCOTT. In consecutive numbers.. Mr. SAMUEL. Only by order of some Member? (Witnesses: Scott, Berry.) The CHAIRMAN. The Members do not have any control over the reserve publications. Mr. FLOOD. And there is no index to these things at all; you just put these in a number of volumes and make no index to them? Mr. SCOTT. No; the numbers run consecutively, you see. Mr. FLOOD. Yes; but you have to know the number of the document in order to be able to find it? Mr. SCOTT. The number of the document or report; yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. The Members do not have any control over the reserve documents except as they make designations of where they are to go? Mr. SCOTT. They do over the reserve documents; yes. A Member controls that—that is, the Member does not have to receive it unless he wants to. It will be held by the Government Printer in stitched form. Mr. FLOOD. But any Member can have any document bound that he wishes to? Mr. SCOTT. Yes; he can order it bound. The CHAIRMAN. But the reserve documents we have in this table, submitted with the regulations of the Joint Committee on Printing, are included under these heads-"Superintendent of documents, depositories?" Mr. SCOTT. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. We understand that those are all bound up? The CHAIRMAN. And distributed to the various libraries and such other institutions as may be designated, and they are designated, with the exception of a small number, something like 14 or 16. The Smithsonian Institute, foreign exchanges-they are also all bound-53 of them; the Senate library, 15; the House library, 15; the Library of Congress. 9. and the State Department, 1. Those are all bound, making a total bound reserve, prior to the regulation, of 595. I do not understand that those are subject to the order of Members of the House except as they distribute or order distributed the number bound up for depositories. Mr. SCOTT. It is only the Member's personal number that they control, and that is turned over to the superintendent of documents. The CHAIRMAN. That is all, Mr. Scott; we are greatly obliged to you. STATEMENT OF F. V. BERRY, ESQ., ACTING CHIEF CLERK, BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. (The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.) The CHAIRMAN. Your position is what, please? Mr. BERRY. Acting chief clerk of the Bureau of International Exchanges. The CHAIRMAN. We wanted to inquire what disposition is made of 53 bound volumes of the detailed statement of expenditures of the Agricultural Department which was sent to the Smithsonian Institution for foreign exchanges; that is, what is done with them, and what their utility is? (Witnesses: Berry, Halvorsen.) Mr. BERRY. They are sent to the royal and national libraries on the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa; also to British, Central, and South America, and deposited in the royal and national libraries of those countries. That work is done on behalf of the Library of Congress; and those libraries are supposed, in return, to send the Government publications of their respective countries, which are deposited in the Library of Congress. The CHAIRMAN. Oh, yes; so that that is a matter of exchange? Mr. BERRY. A matter of exchange. The CHAIRMAN. Between the Library of Congress and the other great libraries of the different countries? Mr. BERRY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And the whole 53 copies, I suppose, are used for that purpose? Mr. BERRY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And I infér from this schedule that every public document that is published and bound by the Government takes the same course through your department, to a certain extent? Mr. BERRY. That is the law. The CHAIRMAN. And you have a uniform number for distribution? Mr. BERRY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And they are all distributed, are they? Mr. BERRY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And that, you say, is done by virtue of the provisions of some general statute? Mr. BERRY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Are these documents, thus distributed, as a rule bound in cloth or in sheep? Mr. BERRY. In sheep, mostly; there are some few in cloth, and some in paper. The CHAIRMAN. Have you had experience in connection with libraries in the use of books, so as to have an opinion upon the question as to which is the most durable and useful binding-sheep or cloth? Mr. BERRY. No, sir. STATEMENT OF J. R. HALVORSEN, ESQ., SUPERINTENDENT OF FOLDING ROOM, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. (The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.) The CHAIRMAN. And you may state to the committee in a general way, if you please, what you receive in the folding room in the line of public documents, and especially House documents. Mr. HALVORSEN. From the Agricultural Department-is that what you mean? The CHAIRMAN. No; generally; from the Agricultural Department and generally. Mr. HALVORSEN. And other Departments? I do not know that my memory will carry me out in giving you a full detailed statement. The CHAIRMAN. Just in a general way. (Witness: Halvorsen.) Mr. HALVORSEN. We handle possibly between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 documents every year from the different Departments--that is, those that come regularly. The CHAIRMAN. Are they bound or unbound? Mr. HALVORSEN. Ours are bound, with the exception of some that come from the Department of Agriculture, such as the Bureau of Soils bulletins, that come to each Member. They are given direct 2,000 copies to each Member from the respective districts represented when a survey has been made in his district. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Mr. HALVORSEN. They are not distributed to others at all, and with the exception of these, other unbound documents go to the Members pro rata. Then we have what is generally known as the commerce and finance monthly summary report and the consular reports from the Department of Commerce and Labor (these are unbound documents), and irrigation papers, professional papers, geological bulletins, that come from the Geological Survey. Some of the bulletins that used to be bound have been reduced in size, such as those that come from the Smithsonian-the ethnological reports-that is, their last bulletins, 31 and 32. The CHAIRMAN. The great bulk of the publications that are for distribution, subject to the control of Members in the matter of distribution, come through the folding room? Mr. HALVORSEN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. All or substantially all of them? Mr. HALVORSEN. Well, those already named. The CHAIRMAN. And with the exceptions that you have named they are all bound either in sheep or in cloth? Mr. HALVORSEN. They are bound principally in cloth; very few in sheep. The Indian Laws and Treaties were bound in sheep. That is the only document that has come to us of recent years bound in sheep; but outside of that they come in cloth. The CHAIRMAN. How long have you been in the folding room? Mr. HALVORSEN. I have been there nearly seven years. The CHAIRMAN. Do you have any of the detailed statements of expenditures of the Agriculture Department in the folding room for distribution? Mr. HALVORSEN. No, sir; they do not come to us. The CHAIRMAN. They do not come to you. There have been some recent investigations in reference to accumulations in that Department that are uncalled for or undistributed. Mr. HALVORSEN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Is there any report bringing that work up to date? Mr. HALVORSEN. There is nothing particularly. The only way that we are able to govern that matter is under the direction of the committee. Under the last rules that they have established we have the privilege of ordering the full quota that belongs to the whole membership of the House, or we can order such number as, according to our experience, is necessary to meet the demands from time to time. The CHAIRMAN. That is, if it turns out that in case of a particular document substantially no demand has been made for it, you can reduce the quota or the allotment? (Witness: Halvorsen.) Mr. HALVORSEN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. To such as you think will supply the demand that might naturally exist therefor? Mr. HALVORSEN. That is exactly the case. The CHAIRMAN. That regulation, however, has only been in force within the last year or so? Mr. HALVORSEN. That is all; within the past year. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Mr. HALVORSEN. And since then we have been somewhat relieved from that congestion which followed from the accumulation of the full quota that was formerly sent to the House. The CHAIRMAN. What do you do with the accumulated volumes? Mr. HALVORSEN. We have to hold them until the Members entitled to them call for them. The CHAIRMAN. He has them to his credit? Mr. HALVORSEN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. About what have the accumulations aggregated up to the present time, roughly speaking? Mr. HALVORSEN. You mean of the last Mr. HALVORSEN. All the documents? The CHAIRMAN. Yes, that you now have on hand. Mr. HALVORSEN. I do not think there has been much of a reduction. There are possibly in the neighborhood of 2,000,000, as shown by the last inventory. The CHAIRMAN. You have, then, substantially 2,000,000 public documents on hand uncalled for? Mr. HALVORSEN. Not very far from it; yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And those have been accumulating for years? The CHAIRMAN. Are they mainly old publications, or do they consist largely of certain documents which have not proved to be of any great value? Mr. HALVORSEN. They consist principally of duplications, or triplieations in some instances; departmental reports which are duplieated in other reports. The CHAIRMAN. Yes, Mr. HALVORSEN. Now, take the message and documents, abridging an annual report. That is covered again in part, or at least referred to in others, so that it becomes in a measure a duplication of the regular report of that particular department. The CHAIRMAN. Has any method been adopted to eliminate that duplication? Mr. HALVORSEN. I believe so. The report of the National Museum this year is simply a departmental report. The scientific side is left out. The CHAIRMAN. That is published elsewhere? Mr. HALVORSEN. Yes, sir; that is expected to be published elsewhere; and of course what they intend to do I do not know. They control their own publications, but it is claimed that they are going to publish bulletins on contributions to knowledge. The CHAIRMAN. That will not cumber up the public documents? |