The Washington times., 1916-04-27
PROBE At LIBRARY
.ORDEREDBYpUTNAM
Attitude Of Employees Toward
Assistant Register To Be In
vestigated.
fcontlnued from FIrrt Page.l

CONTINUED from First PageD
him Benedict Arnold would be a patron
saint Did or did you not say thatT'
"You are quoted. as having said,
America IL nothing but the tall end OF
British eiyllization' Did or did you not
None Of your busness."
you are quoted as having said. 'vul-
gar. vulgar. everything in America -
vulgar Did or did you not say THAR"
None Of your business" ,........
his recent message to Congress
None OF your business"
to 20 TO the Capitol to hear the Presi-
dent de, read his messsse did or did ysp
piece OF the English 10 going 70 speak
None Of your business"
Informed BY The Times.
Librarian Putnam yesterday was In
formed Of the rumors of friction and
disorganization which 10 reported to
exist in the copyright division.
Mr.. Putnam said he had not heard
Of the trouble before his attention was
called to II by The Times.
Office ana questioned him. The register
said he knew nothing of the matter
other than that there had been "a
rather generous display of the Ameri-
can nag in the copyrisht division" .
the cause of the display Of the nag in
that particular division. In reply TO
2 question. he said he did not believe
os ss sss Ssss 9 the sGn y
Librarian Putnam appeared to regard
the case OF Mr.. Bruncken as serious and
worthy OF immediate attention. He
summoned MT. Bruncken to his Office
The Times representative was re-
questions addressed to the latter In his
own Office earlier in the dsy.
wanted to know whether Il am on trial
newspaper tribunal"
He said he did not believe he should
DC called upon to face accusations nom
II have received a number OF anony-
mous letters which believe were writ
ten by employees OF this library" said
tention to them, and I do not intend 10
pay any attention to these accusations
with regard to private conversations"
Questioned BY Putnam.
would you call q conversation be-
tween an official Of the copyright divi-
sion and q tiumber OF employees OF that
division while thcy were at work q pri-
vate conversation Librarian PItnam
That would depend largely upon the
circumstances." replied the assistant
rs this an invest,xation7" asked Mr..
bruncken OF tho librarian.
MT. Putnam paused for a moment, ana
~ would call II an inquiry"
Mr.. Bruncken renewed his objections
to having the questions repeated TO him,
whereupon Mr.. Putnam requested The
Tines representative to repeat the re-
RSrrec statements sst TO me while Mr..
This was done, and the librarian
Now. Mr. Bruncken. do you care to
svail yourself OF the opportunity to
deny or affirm the use of this language
by your
The assistant register said he stu OBJ
1ected to being made the subject Of a
pewspaper Investigation" and express
eral because they rush into print with
out verifying what they hear and With
out giving man a chance to state his
side Of the matter"
DO understand that you will not
reply either to the newspaper man or
myself?' asked Librarian Putnam
MI Bruncken hesitated for a moment
and then said II will answer questions
put to me by my superior officers con-
Putnam Orders Inquiry.
Librarian Putnam then informed The
Times man that 'Mr. solberg. who Il
In direct charge Of the copyright d.
vision. will make inquiry into this mat
ter, questioning Mr.. Bruncken and those
who say they heard him make these
statements. and Mr.. solberg will report
to me the result Of his inquiry. shall
be out Of town far two days, and expect
to hear from Mr.. soiberg upon my re-
turn"
Regarding the nag incident. employees
in the copyright division say that first
they purchased a large American flag
and placed Il in one OF the windows OF
their office. This was removed by the
chief clerk. A few hours later they
purchased smaller hags and placed
them on the electric fixtures over their
desks. These, too, were removed by the
chief clerk.
Register Solberg and Chief Clerk
Brown today took full responsibility for
the removal of the hags, saying there