West, who testified at the last trial that he heard Ross Lee ask, and heard Archie Carroll give permission to ride on the truck. I testified at the trial of the case and I now repeat that the clothes worn by my deceased son, Ross Lee, on the night of this accident were not such as to resemble in any way the uniforms of the Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees and it would have been impossible for anyone even at a casual glance to mistake him for an enrollee. His shoes were black slippers, his trousters were a reddish gray, his shirt was white and blue check, a light-colored print, and a close fitting leather jacket. He wore no hat.

MRS. C. A. LEE.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this the 9th day of February 1943. [SEAL] ELIZABETH GODSEY, Notary Public.

My commission expires July 14, 1943.

STATEMENT OF COY TALLENT

My name is Coy Tallent; I am 28 years of age, am married, and I live in the Rural Valley community near Ivy, Tenn., and get my mail on R. F. D. No. 1, and I am a farmer by occupation.

I was an enrollee in the Civilian Conservation Corps camp for 27 months; I went in in January 1934 and was discharged in April 1936. I left the Civilian Conservation Corps camp at the end of the enrollment period because I had obtained another job and had married. I was first stationed at a camp on Tellico River but went to the Ivy camp in July 1935 and remained there as supply sergeant until April 1, 1936. I was familiar with the rules of the camp with reference to taking the enrollees on recreational trips in trucks and also with the rule that they were not supposed to pick up civilians to ride in the trucks. However, I know that this rule was not enforced. No truck was supposed to go out on trips without an officer in charge. Always the trip was in charge of a lieutenant, a first sergeant, or the educational director, or sometimes two of them would be along. It was the duty of these men to check the boys on and off the truck and it would have been impossible for an outsider to slip in the truck and ride without being observed by one of the officers. I have been on the truck with the first sergeant and lieutenant when they would stop the truck and pick up civilians whom they knew and who were walking along the road or highway.

While I was in the camp at Ivy, Tenn., the enrollees were taken on recreational trips to the picture show at Etowah, Tenn. The trucks which they used for these recreational trips were large trucks covered with tarpaulin and equipped with seats for carrying men. The only entrance to these trucks was from the rear of the truck.

I am familiar with the road from the camp at Ivy to Etowah and have been familiar with it since 1935, and have been over the road numerous times and have driven over it many times since I left the camp in 1936. It is a mountain type of road, but it is well graded and plenty wide for two vehicles to meet or pass from any place on the road unless it would be on a narrow bridge or culvert. I have been shown the place where it is said the accident occurred wherein Ross Lee was fatally injured; the road at that point is not particularly dangerous and is well graded and is wide enough for two vehicles to meet and pass in safety. I am not related in any way to Mrs. C. A. Lee and have no interest whatsoever in the matter.

COY TALLENT.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this the 25th day of June 1940. [SEAL]

My commission expires July 23, 1941.

H. D. RULE, Notary Public.

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM CLAUDE HICKS

My name is William Claude Hicks, I am 31 years of age, and I live at Servilla, Tenn., and am a farmer by occupation.

On the night that Ross Lee was fatally injured I passed by the scene of the accident. I was driving in a direction from Servilla toward Etowah and the truck had been driving in the other direction; going toward the camp at Ivy. As I got even with the scene of the wreck some of the Civilian Conservation Corps boys

hallooed at me, some of them had gotten up to the road and some of them were still with the Civilian Conservation Corps truck which had turned over off the bank of the road and was lying, I believe, on its side, something like 30 feet or 40 feet down the bank from the shoulder of the road. I saw Archie Carroll, whom I knew well, near the truck. When I first saw Ross Lee they were carrying him from the truck up toward my car which was in the road. I did not recognize him at the time. Some of the boys in the truck asked me to take him to a hospital. I was driving a 1930 model A Ford coupe. Lester Lintner was with me. We put Ross Lee in the seat, with his head lying in my lap. The officer in charge of the Civilian Conservation Corps truck went with us and rode on the fender of the car. I took the turtle shell off the back of the car and some of the boys rode in the back. There were three boys in the back of the car and two of them had been injured and they also went to the hospital. Lintner also went along. It was about 11 o'clock at night, the weather was fair, and the road was dry. I did not go down to the truck, and as soon as Lee was placed in the car I drove as fast as I could to the hospital at Etowah.

When I first saw the lights of the truck it was already off the road and still, and it must have been about 300 yards from the place where the truck was. I do not know how long the truck had been off the road but evidently just a short while before I came in sight. I did not look at the road for tracks made by the truck that night but I did go back to the scene of the accident the next morning to get a piece of my car that I had left there and looked at the road then. The road approaching the place where the truck went off the bank was practically straight and almost level. The road at the place where the truck was was plenty wide for two automobiles to pass. I saw the tracks of the truck where they had led off the traveled portion of the road to the right of the road and got over off the shoulder some distance before the truck went off the road and over the bank. There was no car in front of me that I could see going in the same direction that I was and we had stopped along the side of the road for a short while before that and no automobile passed us, and I am sure that there was not any vehicle at all in front of me going in my direction. The Civilian Conservation Corps truck could not have been meeting any vehicle at the time of the accident. I am not related to any of the parties interest in this matter, am not employed by either of them, and I am not employed by the Government.

CLAUDE HICKS.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this the 21st day of June 1940. [SEAL]

My commission expires October 7, 1942.

R. B. HAMMONS,
Notary Public.

STATEMENT OF HOMER W. TAYLOR

My name is Homer W. Taylor, I am 23 years of age, and I live at Ivy, Tenn. I have never been an enrollce in the Civilian Conservation Corps camp but I lived at Ivy, Tenn., within about a quarter of a mile of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp for several years. Part of this time I lived within 200 yards of this camp. I knew a number of the boys enrolled at the camp as well as the officers and Mr. Harris, the educational director. I was at the camp frequently. I rode in the truck with the Civilian Conservation Corps boys many times. On one occasion I went to North Carolina with them to a baseball game, and on many occasions I went with them from the camp to Etowah to the picture show and back. The other times they have asked me to ride as I would be walking along the road. I asked the sergeant about riding in the truck and he said it was all right for me to ride, and I asked the captain about riding and he said that it was all right for me to ride just as long as he did not see me get on. On the trips I made with the boys in the truck to the show at Etowah the sergeant would count the boys as they got in the truck and he would allow me to get on, although he did not count me. They all knew that I was riding with them, and Mr. Harris also knew it. I made many trips over there when he was with the truck. Usually when the truck got to Etowah Mr. Harris would watch the

boys get off the truck and when they loaded up for the return trip to camp he or the sergeant would come around to see that all the boys were on the truck. At no time did they ever object to my riding in the truck with the Civilian Conservation Corps boys.

All of the trips I made to Etowah to the show were made before April 1937, although they have picked me up since that time. I fix this date because I was married in April 1937.

I am not in any wise related to Mrs. C. A. Lee and have no interest in any claim she has against the Government as a result of the death of Ross Lee.

HOMER W. TAYLOR.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this the 19th day of June 1940. (SEAL]

My commission expires October 7, 1942.

R. B. HAMMONS,

Notary Public.

79TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1st Session

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REPORT
No. 85

ESTATE OF ROBERT C. MEALS, MRS. BESSIE MAE MORGRET, MRS. MARGARET J. MEALS, DONALD MEALS, AND BETTY WRIGHTSTONE

FEBRUARY 9, 1945.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed

Mr. PITTENGER, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the

following REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 946]

The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 946) for the relief of the estate of Robert C. Meals, Mrs. Bessie Mae Morgret, Mrs. Margaret J. Meals, Donald Meals (a minor), and Betty Wrightstone (a minor), having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill, as amended, do pass.

The amendments are as follows:

Page 1, line 5, after the word "appropriated", strike out the bill through line 9, page 2; insert in lieu thereof:

to the estate of Robert C. Meals, the sum of $5.742; to the estate of Bessie Mae Morgret, the sum of $4,000; to the legal guardian of Donald Meals, the sum of $2,616.50; to Mrs. Margaret J. Meals, the sum of $2,996.94; to the legal guardian of Betty Wrightstone, the sum of $4,043.50.

At the end of bill, strike out the period, and insert:

: Provided, That no part of the amount appropriated in this Act in excess of 10 per centum thereof shall be paid or delivered to or received by any agent or attorney on account of services rendered in connection with this claim, and the same shall be unlawful, any contract to the contrary notwithstanding. Any person violating the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not exceeding $1,000.

A similar bill was favorably reported by this committee and passed the House in the Seventy-eighth Congress.

The facts will be found fully set forth in House Report No. 52, Seventy-eighth Congress, which is appended hereto and made a part of this report.

[H. Rept. No. 52, 78th Cong., 1st sess.]

An identical bill was reported favorably and passed by the House during the Seventy-seventh Congress, but no action was taken by the Senate before final adjournment.

The facts will be found fully set forth in House Report No. 2617, Seventyseventh Congress, second session, which is appended hereto and made a part of this report.