ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 11

BIENNIUM 1941-1943

The Legislature which met this year made appropriations for
the biennium October 1, 1941-September 30, 1943. Pursuant to the
wishes of the Hall of Records Commission the Archivist requested
an extraordinary sum of $5,000 per anuum for this biennium to be
used for the publication of Prince George's County Court Records.
This request was granted. The Archivist also asked for f 1,280 per
annum more than the Hall of Records has previously received to
provide salary increases for certain members of the staff. This
request was refused; therefore unless a special session of the Legis-
lature is called, staff members cannot receive any increase in salary
although they were employed and are still paid at the depression
rates of 1935 and the cost of living has risen extraordinarily since
that time. In addition, the ordinary budget as it appeared in the
Printed Budget indicates a cut of f 1,731 per annum from the
amount appropriated during the preceding biennium. This cut was
reduced in the Revised Budget to $781 per annum. The attention
of the Commission is also called to the fact that by virtue of an
Act of the Legislature (Acts of 1941, Chapter 938) the Board of
Public Works will deduct 1% of the total appropriation to each
State agency during the next biennium.

There have been certain favorable developments in addition to
the $5,000 appropriated for publications: the Comptroller has prom-
ised a sufficient annual amount from the excess fees of the Clerks
of the Court to pay for the photostating of County Court records.
It has been found inadvisable to continue the procedure we followed
last year of asking each county to care for its records out of its own
excess fees because all counties do not have such an excess, nor
would it be possible to do this work on our ordinary budget. A very
gratifying development has been the generous cooperation of Mr,
Ezra B. Whitman. Chairman of the State Roads Commission, who
gave us the use of a truck and driver to bring the records of Somer-
set and Worcester Counties to the Hall of Records and who prom-
ised us this accommodation in the future. Since the ordinary
budget of the Hall of Records for transportation is only $50 it would
otherwise be impossible to bring more than one tmckload a year
to Annapolis. Finally, the Board of Public Works has promised
to take over part of the financial burden of maintenance of the Hall
of Records building.