Congressional Serial Set

It is estimated that the water revenues available for the fiscal year 1908 will amount to $486,000, but it is provided in the accompanying bill, as it was in the acts for the current and fifteen preceding fiscal years, that any surplus of these revenues over the appropriations made specifically therefrom shall be applied to the work of extending the high-service system of water distribution. Under these indefinite appropriations of the surplus water revenues there has been expended to July 1, 1906, for extending the high-service system of water distribution about $2,939,242.11. The estimated ultimate cost is about $4,000,000.

The total general revenues of the District of Columbia for the fiscal year 1908 it is estimated will amount to $5,730,803.

The appropriations recommended in the accompanying bill and payable from the revenues of the District amount to $5,014,734.31.

In addition to the foregoing sum, appropriations have already been passed by the House in the legislative, executive, and judicial act, and other sums will probably be included in the sundry civil bill, all chargeable next year to the revenues of the District, aggregating about $100,000.

Under authority of the acts of February 11, 1901, June 1, 1902, March 3, 1903, April 27, 1904, and March 3, 1905, advances made by the United States Treasury prior to June 30, 1906, in excess of the revenues of the District of Columbia amounted to $2,931,259.49. This sum will probably be increased, as your committee is advised, to $3,143,314.68 before the close of the current fiscal year, under the authority for further advances contained in the act of June 27, 1906, the interest charge upon which sum for 1908 will amount to $62,866.29. Adding to the sum total, $5,014,734.31, recommended in the accompanying bill, payable from District revenues, the sums carried in the legislative and sundry civil acts and the amount required for interest on advances out of the United States Treasury, it will be seen that the probable total amount to become a charge against the revenues of the District of Columbia during the fiscal year 1908 will not exceed $5,177,600.60, or $553,202.40 less than the estimated sum of those revenues, which surplus will be available, as required by law, to reimburse the United States Treasury a considerable portion of the whole sum that will have probably been advanced by July 1, 1907, on account of the District of Columbia, under the acts referred to, and which it is required "shall be reimbursed to said Treasury out of the revenues of the District of Columbia from time to time within five years, beginning July 1, 1907."

LIMITATIONS.

Limitations with reference to appropriations made in the bill not heretofore imposed, or changes in existing limitations, are recommended as follows:

On page 21: In connection with the appropriation of $50,000 for improvements on the plaza in front of the new Union Railroad Station, the following:

That the total cost to the United States and the District of Columbia shall not exceed one hundred thousand dollars: And provided further, That the Washington Terminal Company, its successors or assigns, shall defray the cost of so much of these constructions as lie within the limits of its present property north of Massachusetts avenue.

On page 21: In connection with the appropriation for assessment and permit work, the following:

That hereafter repayments from the permit fund to the appropriation for assessment and permit work shall be credited to said appropriation for the fiscal year in which the repayment is made.

On page 23: The maximum price that may be paid for making or relaying asphalt pavement is increased from one dollar and sixty-five cents to one dollar and eighty per square yard.

On page 24: In connection with the appropriation for opening alleys and minor streets, the following:

The clause contained in the District appropriation act approved June twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and six, requiring that the compensation of an assistant to the corporation counsel, provided for in the appropriation for opening alleys and minor streets, shall be included in the costs and expenses of the proceedings instituted for the condemnations necessary to be taken for the opening, widening, extending, and straightening alleys and minor streets, and shall be assessed against lands benefited by reason of such opening, extension, widening, and straightening, as provided in section sixteen hundred and eight of said Code of Law, is hereby repealed.

On page 28: In connection with the appropriation for operation of the Anacostia Bridge, the following:

That the time within which said bridge shall be constructed is extended to July first, nineteen hundred and eight.

On page 29: In connection with the appropriation for constructing a bridge to carry Monroe street, Brookland, over the tracks of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the following:

The said Commissioners [of the District of Columbia] are authorized to enter into a contract with the said railroad company or other parties for the construction of such bridge and approaches: Provided, That such portion of this cost shall be borne by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company as is provided in section ten of an act entitled "An act to provide for a union railroad station in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes," approved February twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and three, and said sum shall be paid by said company to the Treasurer of the United States, one half to the credit of the District of Columbia and the other half to the credit of the United States, and the same shall be a valid and subsisting lien against the franchises and property of the said Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and shall be a legal indebtedness of said company in favor of the District of Columbia, jointly for its use and the use of the United States as aforesaid, and the said lien may be enforced in the name of the District of Columbia by bill in equity brought by the Commissioners of the said District in the supreme court of said District, or by any other lawful proceeding against the said Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.

On page 35:

The maximum price that may be paid per annum for each street gas or oil lamp equipped with an incandescent mantle burner of not less than sixty candle power is reduced from twenty-five dollars to twenty dollars and eighty-five cents.

H R-59-2-Vol 1-16

On page 46: In connection with the appropriation for school teachers, the following:

That the amounts herein specifically appropriated for the pay of teachers and officers in the public schools of the District of Columbia which are unused in whole or in part by reason of the death, resignation, transfer, promotion, reduction, or the separation from the school service from any cause whatever of a teacher or officer, may be used for the purpose of changing the amounts specifically appropriated for the salaries of the positions made vacant as aforesaid and those of the lower group or classes affected thereby, by addition thereto, reductions therefrom, or the division thereof, so as to provide the proper salary of the class for newly appointed teachers or officers and the necessary additions or reductions in the salaries of the teachers or officers promoted, reduced, or changed by reason of said death, resignation, transfer, promotion, reduction, or separation from the school service as aforesaid.

Provided, however, That the changes herein authorized shall not increase or reduce the number of teachers or officers provided in the act making appropriations therefor, or exceed in the aggregate the sum specifically appropriated for the salaries of said teachers and officers: Provided further, That the changes in the amounts specifically appropriated for the salaries herein authorized shall only be made to pay the salaries of teachers and officers appointed, promoted, reduced, transferred, or changed, in strict conformity with the provisions of the act entitled "An act to fix and regulate the salaries of teachers, school officers, and other employees of the board of education of the District of Columbia," approved June twentieth, nineteen hundred and six. Provided further, That except as specified no teacher, of the whole number appropriated for herein, shall be employed as, or required to discharge the duties of, a clerk or librarian.

On page 53: In connection with the appropriation for equipment of high school cadets, the following:

Hereafter every male pupil in attendance at the high schools shall be admitted to and shall serve in the high school cadets unless excused from such service by the principal, on certificate of one of the medical inspectors of schools that he is physically disqualified for such service, or on the written request of his parent or guardian.

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT.

The comparative statement which follows shows in detail the amounts appropriated for the current fiscal year, the amounts estimated for 1908, and the amounts recommended in the accompanying bill.