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59TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. REPORT 2d Session. No. 6428.

DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR APPROPRIATION BILL.

JANUARY 18, 1907.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. COUSINS, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 24538.]

The diplomatic and consular appropriation bill presented by the Committee on Foreign Affairs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, carries a total amount of $3,138,477.72, which is $67,816.45 less than the total appropriated for our foreign service for the present fiscal year, and $146,600 less than the estimates submitted by the Department of State.

While the total of the bill is less than that of the last session there are several items of increase which, after most careful consideration by the committee, have been deemed necessary for the betterment of our diplomatic and consular service. These relate principally to the salaries of the ministers who now receive less than $10,000 per year, which increases are recommended because of the generally increased cost of living at the various posts, and for allowances of the consular clerks, whose allowances have been seriously curtailed in many instances because of the enactment of the consular reorganization bill, which withholds all fees from the consuls and requires them to be turned into the Treasury, thereby materially reducing the allowance that the consuls have been able to make to their clerks.

The principal items where changes are recommended are: Ministers to Denmark, Ecuador, Haiti, Morocco, Norway, Greece and Montenegro, Paraguay and Uruguay, Persia, Portugal, Roumania and Servia, Siam, Sweden, and Switzerland, from $7,500 to $10,000; and the Dominican Republic from $5,000 to $10,000. A separate mission is provided for Guatemala, which has heretofore been connected with Honduras, and Salvador has been added to Honduras in place of Guatemala, being separated from the mission to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, of which it has been a part. A secretary of legation to Paraguay and Uruguay, now without a secretary, has also been provided.

The appropriation of $15,000 made last year for the Boundary Commission of the United States and Mexico having been found to be inadequate for carrying on the work provided for in treaties between the two countries, the Department recommends an increase to $25,000 and your committee concurs.

Boundary line between Alaska and Canada from $25,000 to $50,000. The appropriation of $50,000 made last year for our expenses at the forthcoming Hague Peace Conference not having been used, owing to the postponement of that conference, the same is reappropriated.

The sum of $3,000 is recommended for the expenses attending the forthcoming fishery congress to be held in the city of Washington. A reduction of $2,500 is made in the amount appropriated for the expenses of the United States court in China, only $18,000 having been asked for in the estimates, instead of $20,500 appropriated last year.

In the amount of $241,890, recommended for clerk hire allowance at the consulates, there is an increase of $14,680 over existing law, $55,000 less than asked for by the Secretary of State, but an increase which the committee believes will assist at least in part in making sufficient allowance to retain efficient clerks in the consulates.

There is also a recommendation for $5,000, to enable the State Department to have prepared a modern cipher code.

O

EFFICIENCY OF THE ARTILLERY, UNITED STATES ARMY.

JANUARY 18, 1907.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. HULL, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To acocmpany H. R. 17347.]

The Committee on Military Affairs, which has carefully considered the bill (H. R. 17347) to reorganize and increase the efficiency of the artillery of the United States Army, begs leave to report the same back to the House of Representatives with the recommendation that it do pass without amendment..

The laws governing the present organization of the artillery are included in the acts of March 2, 1899, February 2, 1901, March 2, 1901, March 2, 1903, and March 3, 1903.

The act of February 2, 1901, discontinued the regimental organization of the artillery and organized it into a corps, composed of two branches, the Coast Artillery and the Field Artillery-the Coast Artillery being defined as that portion charged with the care and use of fixed and movable elements of land and coast fortifications, including submarine mine and torpedo defenses (the latter elements being added by the act); the Field Artillery being defined as that portion accompanying an army in the field, including light artillery, horse artillery, siege artillery, mountain artillery, and machine-gun batteries.

For personnel the act provided that the Artillery Corps should consist of a chief, selected from among the colonels of artillery; 650 field and company officers in same relative proportion as for infantry and cavalry, and in numbers in each grade equivalent to those required for 13 regiments; 48 sergeants-major, one electrician sergeant at each artillery post, 10 bands, 30 batteries of Field Artillery, and 126 companies of Coast Artillery. It provided that each battery of

Field Artillery and each company of Coast Artillery should have the organization of the companies and batteries fixed by the act of March 2, 1899. The total commissioned strength of the artillery was fixed at 651 officers; the maximum enlisted strength, exclusive of electrician sergeants, at 18,920 men. This law provided for 12 chaplains, and the act of March 2, 1901, provided 12 veterinarians.

By the act of March 2, 1903, 25 master electricians were added to the Coast Artillery, and the number of electrician-sergeants authorized by the act of February 2, 1901 (one to each artillery post), was increased to 100, making the maximum enlisted strength of the artillery, including master electricians and electrician-sergeants, 19,045 men. Of this maximum enlisted strength, 18,165 are now authorized by the President, and of this number 14,153 are assigned to the Coast Artillery and 4,012 to the Field Artillery.

By the act of March 3, 1903, the Chief of Artillery was made a brigadier-general.

The bill provides for the separation of the Coast and the Field Artillery, retains the corps organization for the Coast Artillery, and provides a regimental organization for the Field Artillery. The elements of Coast Artillery material remain as heretofore, but the machine-gun battery is withdrawn from the elements provided by the act of February 2, 1901, for the Field Artillery.

The bill provides that the Chief of Artillery shall cease to exercise supervision over the Field Artillery on July 1, 1908, and that he shall thereafter be designated as the Chief of Coast Artillery; that when a vacancy occurs in the office of the Chief of Artillery, any officer of Coast Artillery may be selected as the next chief to serve for four years only unless reappointed; provision is also made for the retirement of the chief and for filling a vacancy caused by the appointment of a chief.

For Coast Artillery personnel the bill provides that it shall consist of a chief; of 700 field and company officers in the same relative proportions as in the infantry and cavalry, and in numbers in each grade equivalent to those required for 14 regiments; of 2 additional chaplains; of 63 sergeants-major, 26 master electricians, and 148 electrician-sergeants (the number of sergeants-major being 15 more than now authorized, the master electricians 1 more, and the electriciansergeants being divided into two classes and increased by 48 more than authorized by the act of March 2, 1903); of 42 master gunners, 60 engineers, and 60 firemen (new grades); of 14 bands, instead of 10, and of 170 companies, instead of 126 as now authorized, both the strength and the organization of the company being made variable so far as relates to duty sergeants, corporals, and privates.

For Field Artillery personnel, the bill provides that it shall consist of 6 regiments, each regiment to consist of 6 batteries, organized into 2 battalions of 3 batteries each. The personnel provided for each regiment is that considered proper by the War Department for modern war conditions, and the enlisted strength and organization of each battery, as in the case of Coast Artillery companies, is made variable within certain limits at the discretion of the President.

The total commissioned strength of both the Coast and the Field Artillery authorized by present law is 663 officers, including 12 chap

lains, and there are 12 veterinarians. By the proposed bill it is fixed at 967, an increase of 296 officers, excluding chaplains: The enlisted strength of the Coast and Field Artillery as now authorized is 18,290, of which 14,278 are properly assignable to the Coast Artillery; 4,012 to the Field Artillery. By the proposed bill the enlisted strength of the Coast Artillery is fixed at 19,321, an increase of 5,043 over that now authorized.

For the Field Artillery personnel the enlisted strength is fixed by the proposed bill at 5,010 men, an increase of 998 over that at present authorized.

The proposed bill further provides for effecting the separation of the Coast and Field Artillery, how vacancies created by its passage shall be filled, fixes the pay of certain new grades of enlisted men, and finally provides extra pay for a certain number of Coast Artillery experts.

The four principal features of the bill, therefore, are: (1) Separation of the Coast and Field Artillery, (2) increase in the Coast Artillery, (3) increased pay for artillery experts, (4) regimental organization of the Field Artillery.

INCREASED PAY FOR ARTILLERY EXPERTS.

It was indicated above that the authorized strength of the Coast Artillery is 14,278. The actual strength, however, of this corps on October 15, 1906, was 11,218. The reason for this shortage is that it is impossible to get enlisted men for the Coast Artillery at the rates of pay now provided. There are certain duties connected with the Coast Artillery which require special training and skill. These duties are connected with electricity and machinery for coast defenses. After these duties have been learned the knowledge becomes of commercial value to the soldier, in that it fits him for positions in civil life which will pay him several times what is paid him by the Government. It has been found, therefore, that the Government after training these men, some of them in special schools, can not retain their services at the present rates of pay.

This bill provides increased compensation to 1,734 of these specially trained and valuable men while actually performing this high class of duty in which they are expert.

With respect to the cost of the proposed legislation it may be said: The number of electrician sergeants is increased from 100 to 148. These 100 electrician sergeants now draw $34 per month each, with allowances. The 148 provided for in this bill are divided into two classes, 74 of whom will draw $35 per month each, with allowances, and 74 of whom will draw $45 per month each, with allowances. The total increase in cost for this special grade will be $30,240.

The number of master electricians is increased from 25 to 26, the total cost being $900.

Sixty engineers are provided for, at $780 per annum; total cost, $46,800.

Forty-two master gunners are provided for, at $408 each per annum; total cost, $17,136.

Sixty firemen are provided for, at $360 each per annum; total cost, $21,600.

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