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and similar direction of the first fifteen volumes of the Journals of the Continental Congress, a truly monumental labor for which he was concededly the best equipped person in the country, and his performance of which has won enthusiastic praise from exacting critics. That his departure prevents his completion of it is indeed a misfortune; but the portion completed establishes the plan, scope, and standard for the whole; and Mr. Ford's generous transfer to his successor of his notes, accumulated during a long period of private study in preparation for the work, and his readiness to give particular counsel where this may be needed, combine with the actual competence of his successor to assure that the future volumes will show little, if any, diminution in efficiency.

For the gentleman who succeeds him, Mr. Gaillard Hunt, is also familiar with the material and expert in the manner of work. He comes to the Library after twenty-one years' service in the Department of State-not, it is true, as custodian of its archives, but in a proximity to them which his scholarly tastes induced him to utilize. On his departure from the department a letter was addressed to him by the Secretary, which, though it belongs rather to the records of the department than to those of the Library, I can not forbear to reproduce here, not merely as significant of the particular man who has come to our service in a responsibility so important, but also as suggestive of the quality of men that the Government is so fortunate as to secure and retain.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Washington, November 16, 1908 MY DEAR MR. HUNT: It is with great regret that I accept your resignation as Chief of the Bureau of Citizenship of the State Department, to take effect on the ist of January next.

Were it not that the position in the Library of Congress to which you are going affords a better opportunity for the kind of work to which you wish to devote yourself, I should urge you to reconsider your determination. Your work in the State Department has been of a very high quality and most devoted and efficient. You have dealt satisfactorily with some of the most important subjects involved in our foreign relations and you have been absurdly underpaid. Your labors have been inconspicuous and of a character to attract little public attention, and you can not expect much public appreciation of them; but they have been appreciated by everybody in the State Department and by many members of both Houses of Congress and by all who have had occasion to become familiar with the workings of the Bureau of Citizenship; and they should be for yourself a basis of enduring satisfaction. We are all sorry to lose you, and I think I am most sorry of all. With sincere esteem, regard, and good wishes, I am Always faithfully yours

ELIHU Root

Subordinate

service

The position of Assistant Register of Copyrights, created on July 1, 1908, but because of an inadequate salary not then filled, has, now that the salary has been put upon the recommended basis ($3,000), been filled by the appointment of Mr. Ernest Bruncken. Mr. Bruncken, a lawyer by train

. ing and original profession (with practice at Milwaukee, Wis.), has for the past four years been legislative librarian in the state library of California.

The routine work of other divisions has been embarrassed by the usual number of resignations of subordinate employees. Where, as in the Catalogue and Classification Division, this work is technical, requiring special training and fully efficient only after a considerable period of service here, an increasing difficulty is met in filling the vacancies. As the Chief Classifier remarks in his annual report:

“The men and women preparing to enter the library profession appear to be training more and more exclusively for purely executive positions. The multiplication of libraries and the reorganization of older ones into centralized and complex library systems is creating a demand in that direction to which attention has been called repeatedly and prominently of late in the organs of the American library world. As in these cases the scientific and technical problems are not under consideration, it is natural that no reference should be made to them and that the high order of executive ability necessary for the general administration of such institutions should alone be dwelt upon. Cataloguing, classification, reference work, and other such services are, however, vital functions of the library organism. The tendency of aspirants for library honors to confine their efforts to the acquisition of administrative training and experience, and to look upon the other functions with indifference, if not disdain, may be due to the greater emphasis placed upon the former in current professional discussions; not that the executive is held in greater honor, but the others in less. Cooperative cataloguing and classification on the other hand demand comprehensive knowledge and great efficiency. They also involve problems of organization and require constant effort toward improvement in methods and simplification of processes. The value of this service has received recognition by appropriate rank in a few instances, but unless such recognition is granted less grudgingly the technical departments of library work will not attract men of the education and ability requisite to success in them.”

FINANCE

The table given below exhibits the appropriations and expenditures of the Library proper and of the Copyright Office for the fiscal year, and the appropriations for the year now current. Included also are the appropriations for the equipment and care of the building and grounds, expended by the Superintendent. The allotment for printing and binding (during the past year $202,000) is not included.

Object of appropriations

Appropria-
tions, 1908

Appropria-
tions, 1909

Expenditures, 1909

Appropriations, 1910

$241, 900.00

a 2,051.83

IO,000.00

16,800.00

Library and Copyright
Office:
Salaries-

General service - $239, 060.00 $239,060.00 $238,661.85
Special service a 2, 348.50 a 2, 360. 74 2, 308.91
Sunday service..

10,000.00 10,000.00 9,985.84
Distribution of

card indexes. 12,939. 22 017, 158.97 b 17, 123.41 Indexes, digests,

and compila

tion of laws.-- 5,840.00 5,840.00 5,840.00
Indexes, digests,

and compila-
tion of laws,
1907-8.

C4, 501.92
Index to the

Statutes at

Large.
Carrier service.-

* 312.00 309.34
Copyright Office

75, 300.00 77,800.00 177,624.30 Increase of Library.- 108,000.00 € 108,000.00 | 107,986.31 Contingent expenses. 7. 300.00 7, 300.00 7, 246.42

10,000.00

560.00 87,860.00 € 108,000.00

7,300.00

[blocks in formation]

a Includes balance from preceding year.

Appropriations 1908 include $1,500 deficiency and $639.22 credits on account of sales to government institutions. Appropriations 1909 include $358.97 credits on account of sales to government institutions. Does not include $146.94 yet to be credited. Expenditures 1909 ($17,123.41) offset by subscriptions covered into the Treasury ($24,452). An indebtedness of $175 is to be paid when amounts due through sales to government institutions have been credited in full.

c Balance available July 1, 1907.
d Offset by fees covered into the Treasury ($83,816.75).

e Exclusive of $1,500 to be expended by the marshal of the Supreme Court for new books for that body.

f Expenditures 1909 include outstanding orders.
9 Appropriations 1910 include balance from preceding year.
* Effective March 5-June 30, 1909.

tions

The appropriations for 1909 varied from those in the

year

A Þ propria preceding only in the following particulars:

Salaries (Copyright Office): An Assistant Register of Copyrights, at $2,500.

Card indexes: The appropriation for service in connection with the distribution of card indexes increased from $10,800 and $1,500 (deficiency) for 1908 to $16,800 for 1909.

Printing and binding: The allotment decreased to $202,000 as an offset to the increased appropriation for card indexes, certain service heretofore rendered by the Government Printing Office in connection with the distribution of printed catalogue cards and charged to the allotment for printing and binding being transferred to the Library of Congress and provided for under the appropriation for card indexes.

Building and grounds: One telephone switchboard operator at $720 and i assistant telephone switchboard operator at $600 in place of 2 telephone operators at $600 each. One hundred thousand dollars toward the construction, mechanical equipment, electric lighting, and roofing of a stack of shelving for bound newspapers and books in the southeast court of the Library building, to cost not exceeding $300,000.

The appropriations for 1909-10 include the following changes and additional provisions:

Salaries (general service): General administration: Two Appropriastenographers and typewriters at $1,000 each (in place of 2 stenographers and typewriters, i at $1,200 and i at $720); a messenger boy at $360.

Reading Room: Two attendants (for gallery and alcoves), at $480 each.

Music Division: The salary of the chief of the division increased from $2,000 to $3,000 and of the chief assistant from $1,400 to $1,500.

Law Library: Salary of Law Librarian made $3,000 (covering the compensation of $500 for supervision of preparation of the new index to the Statutes at Large).

Copyright Office: Salary of Register of Copyrights increased from $3,000 to $3,500, and later (through the defi

tions, 1909-10

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