evening before the fire in his private apartments at the Hamilton house, Mr. Dingley with remarkable speed, wrote with a pencil on a pad, the famous report which accompanied the tariff bill on the following day. In this report, Mr. Dingley pointed out that "for nearly four years the revenue has been inadequate to meet the current expenditures and pay the interest on the war debt. This clearly justifies the convention of congress to devise a prompt and adequate remedy. Nearly two hundred and three million dollars of the two hundred and ninety-three million dollars of borrowed gold have been used to supply an insufficiency of revenue." He showed how the tariff of 1890 was practically nullified by anticipated reduction of duties in 1892 and 1893. He added that "an imperative duty resting on this congress is to so adjust duties in a revision of the tariff as to secure needed revenue to carry on the government and to protect the many industries which have so seriously suffered in the past three years from unequal foreign competition, and from the consequent loss of purchasing power of the masses of the people upon which the demand for products and the prosperity of every citizen depend."

Mr. Dingley was loudly applauded when on the following day he reported the tariff bill to the house. It was agreed to begin debate March 22 and to have the final vote March 31.

140. An Extract from the Dingley Tariff Act

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That on .and after the passage of this Act, unless otherwise specially provided for in this Act, there shall be levied, collected and paid upon all articles imported from foreign countries and mentioned in the schedules herein contained, the rates of duty which are, by the schedules and paragraphs, respectively prescribed, namely:

Schedule A. Chemicals, Oils, and Paints.

1. Acids: Acetic or pyroligneous acid, not exceeding the

The salaries of stenog

raphers and

specific gravity of one and forty-seven one-thousandths, threefourths of one cent per pound; exceeding the specific gravity of one and forty-seven one-thousandths, two cents per pound; boracic acid, five cents per pound; chromic acid and lactic acid, three cents per pound; citric acid, seven cents per pound; salicylic acid, ten cents per pound; sulphuric acid or oil of vitrol not specially provided for in this act, one fourth of one cent per pound; tannic acid or tannin, fifty cents per pound; gallic acid, ten cents per pound; tartaric acid, seven cents per pound; all other acids not specially provided for in this Act, twenty-five per centum ad valorem.

2. All alcholic perfumery, including cologne water and other toilet waters and toilet preparations of all kinds, containing alcohol or in the preparation of which alcohol is used, and alcoholic compounds not specially provided for in this Act, sixty cents per pound and forty-five per centum ad valorem.

...

[Here follow the remaining schedules: B. Earths, Earthenware, and Glassware; C. Metals and Manufactures of; D. Wood and Manufactures thereof; E. Sugar, Molasses and Manufactures thereof; F. Tobacco and Manufactures thereof; G. Agricultural Products and Provisions; H. Spirits, Wines, and other Beverages; I. Cotton Manufactures; J. Flax, Hemp, Jute and Manufactures of; K. Wool and Manufactures of Wool; L. Silk and Silk Goods; M. Pulp, Papers, and Books; N. Sundries.]

141. Obtaining Estimates for Appropriations

The bewildering details to be secured in preparing a single item of appropriation are shown in this testimony by Mr. Putnam, Librarian of Congress, and by Mr. Green, taken in a hearing of a committee charged with the consideration of appropriations for the Library.

MR. LITTAUER. Now, as to matters of detail, in the general administration of your own office, you have two stenographers typewriters. and typewriters, at $1,000 each. Do you find necessity for two?

MR. PUTNAM. I am using three all through this period of the

season.

MR. LITTAUER. What work requires so much stenographic employment?

MR. PUTNAM. Of ordinary letters passing through the office we have about 30,000 a year from all over the country. MR. BRICK. What are they about?

of the

MR. PUTNAM. More and more we are becoming a sort of bureau The extent of information for people throughout the country, especially on correspondbibliographic subjects. People write to us for bibliographic ence. information, as to whether there is in the library material on certain subjects, or where it may be found. It is bibliographic information that we feel called upon to give. There are about 10,000 of those. That disposes of about a third of our correspondence; and we are in constant communication with the libraries throughout the country, of course, upon matters of library administration in which we are all interested. There is a correspondence, constantly going on in connection with applications, and so on. Then there is miscellaneous correspondence regarding the solicitation of material, and so on. This correspondence, however, is independent of that which goes on in every division of the Library. This is for my office alone.

MR. TAWNEY. These 30,000 letters pass through your office alone?

MR. PUTNAM. Yes.

MR. BRICK. That swells the force, and also makes it necessary to attend to that correspondence?

MR. PUTNAM. Yes. Many letters are written merely for the transmittal of memoranda compiled in another division of the Library. We may be called upon to say whether a certain map corresponds with some official or historic map that may be mentioned, and we send that inquiry to the map division, and they forward the data from which the answer is prepared. It is a large correspondence.

MR. LIVINGSTON. Now, let us come down to business on that

Estimates on a day's work.

The

annual

coal bill.

proposition, Mr. Putnam. Thirty thousand letters a year is 2,500 a month, and 92 letters a day, divided between three stenographers. That would be thirty letters for each one per day. Do you think that is a good day's work?

MR. PUTNAM. That is part of their work only. I think it would be a very good day's work on letters of more than one page each; but of course they are attending also to the records in my office and to miscellaneous work besides that. One of them has to handle correspondence that comes in relative to remittances for our card distribution. Then they have to index the letter books, and keep the files, and so on. When a Senator writes to us about a transaction and refers to it a year later, he wants us to be able to refer to the correspondence immediately.

MR. LITTAUER. Where do you get the third stenographer from? MR. PUTNAM. The special roll, generally. We have an allowance of $2,000 a year to be expended in special temporary

service.

MR. LIVINGSTON. What is the chief stenographer's salary? MR. PUTNAM. The law provides two stenographers and typewriters, to receive $1,000 each. . . .

MR. TAWNEY. How much fuel do you purchase under this appropriation?

MR. GREEN. About 3,400 tons or 3,500 tons, I should think, I bought this year.

Mr. TAWNEY. Where did you get it?

MR. GREEN. From the dealers in town here. We advertise

for it every year.

MR. TAWNEY. Is there any competition in bids?

MR. GREEN. Oh, yes. We advertise in the newspapers.

get all that come, sometimes four, and sometimes six or eight. MR. TAWNEY. What do you pay a ton?

We

MR. GREEN. I do not recollect exactly what it is this year,

but it is something like $5.30-something like that.

MR. TAWNEY. Is that delivered at the Library?

MR. GREEN. Yes; delivered and dumped into our vaults.

MR. LIVINGSTON. Are these bids straight or do they contain

rebates?

MR. GREEN. They are straight; there are no rebates.

MR. TAWNEY. How many tons did you say?

MR. GREEN. I think this year it amounts to 3,500 tons. It makes the total expenditure for that something like $17,000 out of $32,500 that we got.

Congress often obtains estimates for appropriations for specific objects by directing joint resolutions to some executive officer in the following manner:

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the Secretary of War be directed to transmit to the Senate an estimate of the cost of deepening the channel of Curtis Bay, Baltimore Harbor, in Maryland, to thirty feet, and widening the channel to two hundred and fifty feet; and also an estimate of the cost of increasing the depth of the main ship channel of the Patapsco River and Baltimore Harbor to thirty-five feet and the width thereof to one thousand feet.

Passed the Senate January 19, 1901.

Passed the House of Representatives January 22, 1901.

142. Extract from an Appropriation Bill

This brief extract illustrates the manner in which Congress may go into very specific details in making appropriations:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, and the same are hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, in full compensation for the service of the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and seven, for the objects hereinafter expressed namely: ...

For compensation of the President of the United States, fifty thousand dollars.1

For compensation of the Vice-President of the United States, Provisions cight thousand dollars.2

1 Now $75,000 per annum.

2 Now $12,000 per annum.

for the

executive department.