was on its right-hand side of the road and the two outside or right-hand wheels off the edge of the concrete. I was on the right side of the taxicab and could look out and see the bank by the light of the truck and the taxicab. It looked to me as though the taxicab was right on the edge of the bank. If it had gone over any further it would have ran over the bank. Just above where the collision occurred the shoulder of the road widens and the taxicab swerved into this and was stopped a few feet above where the collision occurred. I thought the taxicab was going over the bank. From the place where we were on the side of the road, the truck had at least 14 or 15 feet in which to pass the taxicab. The collision was severe and the jar and jolt from it was very severe. As result of the collision Dorothy Mason was killed, Lillie Price was rendered unconscious and was put in the hospital in an unconscious condition, Arnold Blanton was injured on his arm, Clyde Thorp was rendered unconscious and regained consciousness on the way to the hospital, and the driver Mat Hensley was injured. The truck had abundant of room to pass the taxicab and had the driver used any sort of care he would have been able to have passed the taxicab without hitting it. VERNON HOWARD. Subscribed and sworn to before me by Vernon Howard, this the 16th day of January 1936. H. C. HOWARD, The affiant, Alvin Watson, says and states as follows to wit: Deputy Clerk. I came up in an automobile a few minutes after the collision between the taxicab of Mat Hensley and the Civilian Conservation Corps truck, driven by H. L. Raines, and while there I heard H. L. Raines, the driver of the truck, state in words or substance that Mr. Mat Hensley need not worry about his car; it was his (H. L. Raines) fault. And that they would fix Mr. Hensley's car or get him another one in its place, and at the same place and a little later he said that his goggles or glasses had fallen off or gotten down over his eyes and he was trying to get them adjusted and in doing this he lost control of the truck, and the next thing he knew he had hit the car. All of this conversation took place on the grounds and at the place of the collision and while the taxicab was still sitting near the place of the collision, and Mr. Hensley, Eula Blanton, Arnold Blanton, and several of the Civilian Conserv&tion Corps boys were either present or there around the place of the collision. ALVIN WATSON. Sworn to and subscribed before me this the 14th day of February 1936. My commission expires December 2, 1937. 1st Session No. 1179 CERTAIN DISBURSING AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE INDIAN SERVICE JULY 14, 1939.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed Mr. RAMSPECK, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 4085] The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (H. R 4085) for the relief of certain disbursing agents and employees of the Indian Service, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass. The purpose of the proposed legislation is to authorize and direct the Comptroller General to allow credit to employees of the Indian Service and in the accounts of J. E. Balmer, S. F. Stacher, and J. W. Elliott, disbursing agents of the Indian Service, for payments made during the period November 1933 to April 1934 to certain employees for the use of their personally owned automobiles as provided in the act of February 14, 1931 (46 Stat. 1103), to the extent that payments have been disallowed solely because the oil and gas used in such automobiles were purchased from Government supplies. The bill was introduced at the request of the Acting Secretary of the Interior, and the details are fully set forth in his letter addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, dated February 8, 1939, which letter is appended hereto and made a part of this report. THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. SIR: There is transmitted herewith a draft of a bill which would afford relief for certain employees and disbursing officers of the Indian Service in whose accounts disallowances have been made by the General Accounting Office of amounts paid such employees for the authorized use of their privately owned automobiles on a mileage basis while in official travel status. The disallowances are reflected on certificates of settlement as follows: In all cases these disallowances resulted from the fact that the employees were permitted to purchase from Government stock and under Government contracts part of the gasoline and oil necessary for the operation of their personally owned automobiles while they were being paid mileage for official travel. Authority to reimburse the employees on a mileage basis was issued pursuant to the provisions of the act approved February 14, 1931 (46 Stat. 1103), as amended, and paragraph 12a of the Standardized Government Travel Regulations. Reimbursement of the cost of these supplies was effected by deductions from the amounts claimed on travel vouchers. The Comptroller General held, however, in Decisions A-58547, dated November 19, 1934, and April 8, 1935, that such action constituted reimbursement on an actual expense basis and directed the deposit of the net amount paid each of the employees as mileage for the use of his own conveyance. It is apparent from reports submitted by the disbursing agents concerned that this situation arose to some extent because of local conditions on some Indian reservations and through misunderstanding on the part of the disbursing agents and employees. Owing to the isolation of the emergency work on many Indian reservations, it is frequently more expedient to permit employees to purchase gasoline and oil from Government stock than to require them to travel out of their way to secure such supplies from dealers or merchants, It has been the policy to limit the issuance of authorities for the use of personally owned automobiles on a mileage basis to those cases where official duties of employees require them to travel and there are no Government automobiles available. In the cases involved here, it was the intention to reimburse the employees on a mileage basis for the use of their personally owned automobiles and not on an actual expense basis. Inasmuch as the employees concerned were acting in good faith and the travel performed was in connection with official business, it is recommended that the proposed legislation receive favorable consideration. Respectfully, HARRY SLATTERY, Acting Secretary of the Interior. О BEN WILLIE JONES JULY 14, 1939.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed Mr. KEOGH, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 2860] The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 2860) for the relief of Ben Willie Jones, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill as amended do pass. The amendments are as follows: Line 5, after the name "Jones", insert "as legal representative of Thelma Jones, a deceased minor". Line 10, after the name "Columbia", insert "and the United States". Amend the title of the bill to read as follows: A bill for the relief of Ben Willie Jones, as legal representative of Thelma Jones, a deceased minor. The purpose of the proposed legislation is to pay the sum of $2,500 to Ben Willie Jones, of Washington, D. C., in full settlement of all claims against the government of the District of Columbia and against the United States, on account of the death of his daughter, Thelma Jones, aged 2, who was burned to death on December 16, 1937, while a patient receiving treatment at Gallinger Municipal Hospital. STATEMENT OF FACTS According to the records of Gallinger Hospital, at 9:45 p. m. on December 12, 1937, Thelma Jones, age 2 years, was admitted to the hospital. At the time, the child was suffering from spasmodic croup of several days duration, and which was characterized by elevated. temperature, respiratory difficulty, and cough. Following her admission to the hospital this child was found to be primarily in need of treatment to alleviate her respiratory embarrassment, and she was very promptly placed in a croup tent or canopy of linen under which were introduced and where she could receive by inhalation the benefit of medicated fumes produced by an electric croup kettle, while resting in her crib or small bed. As a result of this treatment the child appeared to make satisfactory progress and a favorable outcome in the case was anticipated. On December 16, 1937, at 8:10 p. m. while subject was still in the croup tent, she was examined by the resident physician on duty; her temperature was taken by the nurse on the floor, and by both of these individuals it is reported that the croup tent referred to above was apparently in satisfactory condition and working effectively. For sake of clarity, it should be mentioned here that the arrangement of the bed linen when a croup tent is in use is in accordance with a definite and exact plan with which the nurses in the hospital are familiar, and there was no evidence in this case to indicate that the tent was other than properly set up and in operation according to existing instructions on the subject. At approximately 8:35 p. m., the student nurse, Miss Evelyn Gaynor, noticed an appearance of unusual light showing from the room in which the child under discussion was located. Upon going to this door she discovered that the bed clothing on this child's crib was in flames. She immediately called for help, and the resident physician, Dr. Kenneth F. Laughlin, working on the floor below, responded at once. He entered the room and removed the child from the burning bed, but not before she had become burned and asphyxiated from the flames and smoke incident to the burning bed clothing. The body of this child was found upon examination to be extensively burned, and while respirations had not ceased at the time of her removal from the bed, it was impossible to render any treatment effective in nature toward saving her life, and subject was pronounced dead at approximately 8:40 p. m. The official cause of death was: "Generalized burns and shock." A careful investigation of this case was made and, in spite of every effort to arrive at the true facts, the exact cause of the accident in question continues to be a mystery. There were no defects present in the mechanical construction of the electric croup kettle referred to herein; the wiring of the building was found upon close check-up to be intact and effective, and so far as can be determined, the inflammable bed clothing comprising this croup tent was not located in too close proximity to the wall plug that was the source of electric current supplying the kettle. Probably the most reasonable conclusion as to the cause of the accident would be that the bed clothing became somewhat disarranged at the time of the doctor's visit, which occurred at 8:10 p. m., and was not noticed or rearranged at that time, remaining too close to the electric wire carrying the current to the kettle. A defect in the insulation of this wire may have developed with a resulting spark which caused the nearby bedclothes to ignite, smoulder, and burst into flames. The event in question was distinctly accidental in nature and no specific blame for it can be attributable either to the system in effect for handling such matters, or to any individual involved in the affair. It probably could have been prevented if a nurse had been available for almost constant attention to the room in which this child was assigned. This however was not the case, and it may be said here that some shortage in nursing service on this particular floor at the time in question could be considered indirectly contributory to this death. |