(Witness: Zappone.) BUILDINGS UNDER LEASE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. The following statement shows the buildings under lease in the District of Columbia on June 30, 1906. Rate per annum. $300.00 2, 400.00 Office of Secretary: Rooms for storage, 611 Maryland avenue SW___ Bureau of Plant Industry: Vegetable pathological and physiological investiga- $3,720.00 Botanical investigations and experiments, laboratories and offices, 224 Twelfth street SW.... 3,000.00 Grass and forage plant investigations, offices, 1346 B street SW 1,500.00 Purchase and distribution of valuable seeds, seed warehouse, 221 Thirteen-and-a-half street SW 3,000.00 Pomological investigations, offices, 203, 205, 207, 207), and 209 Thirteenth street SW_ 2,040. 00 13, 260. 00 Forest Service, offices and storage rooms: Atlantic Building, 930 F street NW__ Washington Loan and Trust Building, Ninth and F 14,778. 96 streets NW., 2 rooms.. 570.00 Bureau of Chemistry: Laboratories and offices, 200-202 Fourteenth street SW. and 206 Fourteenth street SW.. 2, 800.00 Bureau of Soils: Laboratories and offices, 208, 212-214 Thirteenth Bureau of Entomology: Offices 904 B street SW. Document rooms, 215 Thirteenth street SW. Office of Public Roads: Laboratories and offices, 237 Fourteenth street SW 3, 920. 00 720.00 $5,000.00 5,060.00 2,000.00 Total_ 46,588. 96 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. JANUARY 12, 1907. (Part of testimony, given on above date, before Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture.) STATEMENT OF DR. ALONZO D. MELVIN, CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. (The witness was sworn by the chairman.) The CHAIRMAN. You are the Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. How long have you been the Chief? Doctor MELVIN. Since December of 1905. The CHAIRMAN. Since December, 1905. And how long have you been connected with the Bureau? Doctor MELVIN. Since December, 1886. The CHAIRMAN. And in what capacity during that time? Doctor MELVIN. First as a veterinary inspector, and in 1895 as chief of the inspection division in Washington, and then in January, 1899, as Assistant Chief of the Bureau. The CHAIRMAN. Now, you may state generally of what your Bureau has charge-that is, the sort of work that comes under your direction. Doctor MELVIN. May I read from some printed matter that I have here? The CHAIRMAN. State it in your own way, either reading or stating it from memory. Doctor MELVIN. Under the act approved May 29, 1884, the Bureau was established. The wording of that act was: An act for the establishment of a Bureau of Animal Industry, to prevent the exportation of diseased catttle, and to provide means for the suppression and extirpation of pleuro-pneumonia and other contagious diseases among domestic animals. (Public-No. 41.) Since that time there has been added to the duties of the Bureau the inspection of meat products and of live cattle exports, the inspection of imported animals, the work in dairying, and animal husbandry. I suppose you refer to last year, not this year? The CHAIRMAN. No; bring it right up to date. Doctor MELVIN. Also the investigations regarding various diseases affecting domestic animals and the distribution of such information, and the eradication of the tick producing Texas fever in cattle. 135 (Witnesses: Melvin, Zappone.) The CHAIRMAN. The great bulk of the expenditures in your department relates to services out of Washington? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. That is necessarily so, of course, on account of the work in which you are engaged? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. I find here, "Total amount paid for salaries in Washington, $83,595.62." Mr. ZAPPONE. If you will turn to page 99 you will find a summary; it is at the top of the page. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Lump-fund salaries in Washington, $83,595.62, and, lump-fund salaries out of Washington, $1,145,053.65. Then we have statutory salaries, $78,208.29. Where are those distributed, in and out of Washington or altogether in Washington? Doctor MELVIN. The statutory salaries? The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Doctor MELVIN. They are all, I believe, in the city of Washington. I do not think there is an exception to that. The CHAIRMAN. The aggregate expense of the Bureau is something like a million and a half of money? Doctor MELVIN. For last year; yes sir. Mr. ZAPPONE. It might be well to state that of that sum there will be a balance to be turned back into the Treasury of $92,647. The CHAIRMAN. So that you have kept well within your appropria tion? Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Who fixes the salaries under the lump-sum appropriation? Doctor MELVIN. The Secretary, upon the recommendation of the chief of the Bureau. The CHAIRMAN. So that that is upon your recommendation? The CHAIRMAN. So that in the first instance you determine the amounts, and then that is subject to the approval of the Secretary? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. How many classes of clerks have you? The CHAIRMAN. And their salaries range from what? Mr. ZAPPONE. Are you referring to the salaries in the city of Washington, the statutory salaries, or the lump-fund salaries? Doctor MELVIN. That will qualify my answer somewhat, according to which you refer to. The CHAIRMAN. First, in relation to the salaries in Washington. Mr. ZAPPONE. Statutory salaries. Doctor MELVIN. Of clerks? The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Doctor MELVIN. There are four classes. The CHAIRMAN. The salaries are what, beginning with the lowest ? Doctor MELVIN. I think there are only four provided for under the civil-service regulations. The CHAIRMAN. What is the distinction between the classes? (Witness: Melvin.) Doctor MELVIN. The practical distinction is the character of the work performed by the clerks themselves. The CHAIRMAN. The difference between the classes in compensation is $200 in each instance? Doctor MELVIN. Not in all cases; no, sir. We have clerks at $600, $720, $840, $900, and $1,000, and after a thousand the differences are $200 up to $1,800. I think we have employees at all of those sums. The CHAIRMAN. So that is a uniform classification? Doctor MELVIN. The prevailing custom in this Bureau has not been to fix their salaries with reference to the class so much as regarding the character of the work performed by the employee and the length of service. The CHAIRMAN. Now, what is the distinction between the duties. performed, or the work performed, by your clerks under $1,000, as compared with your clerks at $1,000; that is, start right in, beginning with the lowest class. What do they do? Doctor MELVIN. The simpler forms of clerical work, such as making book entries and work of that sort, which does not require a very great clerical education. Then usually clerks are appointed at $1.000 or less, and then as we determine their proficiency their pay is increased. The CHAIRMAN. What kind of work does the clerk at a thousand dollars do; in what way does the work that he does differ in kind and character from the work performed by your clerks in the lower grades, below that? Doctor MELVIN. As I stated, the duties of the clerks at the lower salaries are very simple in character, and they increase until they reach the character of assistants in executive work-that is, assisting those in charge of the various divisions. The CHAIRMAN. What kind of assistance does your thousand-dollar man render that is not rendered by the clerk below him. That is, what things does the thousand-dollar man do that the man below him does not do? Is there any increase in the scope of his duties? Doctor MELVIN. Some. The work that they do is of a generally higher character. And then again, his additional compensation is more on account of his length of service in the Department. The CHAIRMAN. Now can you make that any more clear? Doctor MELVIN. There is not so great a distinction between clerks of those grades as there would be between those of that grade and a higher grade. The CHAIRMAN. Take your $1,200 clerk. What duties does the $1,200 clerk discharge that are additional to the duties discharged. by your $1,000 clerk? Doctor MELVIN. Of course, the character of the work to which these clerks are assigned varies a great deal in the different divisions to which they belong. For instance, take the inspection division, which is probably the largest division in the Bureau, and the higher class clerks that is, ranging from $1,200 to $1,400-would be assigned to that work, the recording of reports of inspection, transferring these records into books of record; and they would be capable of determining from the nature of these reports whether there was anything special which should be called to the attention of the chief of the division. (Witness: Melvin.) The CHAIRMAN. Does a $1,000 man do that same kind of recording? Doctor MELVIN. He might, for a time. He might be assigned to that for a time, and then later increased in salary. We try as far as possible, before making increases, to determine whether the person is suitable for a higher class of work, and if he is, we try to regulate his salary accordingly. The CHAIRMAN. So that during a portion of a $1,000 man's service he makes these same records that you have referred to as being made by the $1,200 and $1,500 men? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. When we think a man is capable of doing a higher class of work, and we have that higher class of work for him to do, we would assign him at his first salary until we could determine whether he could fill the position or not. The CHAIRMAN. Is there anything that differentiates the service performed by the $1,200 and $1,400 men as a higher class of service than this matter of making records and making suggestions to their superiors of important matters that they discover in the records? I understand you to say that is it. Is there anything but that? Doctor MELVIN. Our stenographers are designated here as stenographers and clerks. They are clerks and stenographers, and do both clerical and stenographic work. The CHAIRMAN. You do not have any designation of stenographers per se? Doctor MELVIN. I do not think we do. In obtaining a large part of our clerks, their ability as stenographers is almost secondary to their clerical ability, though not in all cases. In some cases the stenography predominates, but in others the clerical work predominates; so that in most cases we use these people as clerks and stenographers. The CHAIRMAN. Are they practically all stenographers? Doctor MELVIN. I should think probably one-third of them are qualified in stenography. Perhaps there are more than that. The CHAIRMAN. Is that when they begin? Doctor MELVIN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. When they start in, that proportion of your clerks are stenographers? Doctor MELVIN. Yes, sir. Take it in our laboratories. There is a great deal of dictation which these stenographers have to take which is very technical in its character, and as they become proficient we try to promote them in their salaries. The CHAIRMAN. What is the nature of their dictation? Recording the results of the work of the men in the Department? Doctor MELVIN. Principally in correspondence and in writing reports; in getting up in typewritten form reports that have been written by the chief or whoever is making the report. The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean annual reports, or reports made from time to time on different subjects? Doctor MELVIN. The latter. The CHAIRMAN. What? Doctor MELVIN. Various reports regarding investigations that have been completed. |