AMENDING ACT TO AUTHORIZE CONSTRUCTION OF BRIDGES ACROSS NAVIGABLE WATERS.

FEBRUARY 13, 1909.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. STEVENS, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 27531.]

The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 27531) to amend an act entitled "An act authorizing the construction of bridges across navigable waters, and to extend the time for the construction of bridges across navigable waters, and to legalize the construction of bridges across navigable waters," approved May 20, 1908, having considered the same, report thereon with amendment, and as so amended recommend that it pass.

The bill as amended has the approval of the War Department, as will appear by the letter attached and which is made a part of this report.

Amend the bill as follows: In line 3, page 1, after the word "That," insert "the second paragraph of section six of."

Strike out all in line 8, page 1, after the word "amended;" strike out all of lines 9 and 10, page 1, and all of lines 1 and 2, page 2, and insert in lieu thereof the following: "so as to read as follows."

Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. The object of the accompanying bill, H. R. 27531, Sixtieth Congress, second session, is simply to authorize a change in location of a bridge authorized by an act of Congress approved May 20, 1908, to be built over Red Lake River, Minnesota.

I do not know any interests of navigation which would be injuriously affected by the proposed legislation, and do not see any objection to the passage of the bill by Congress so far as those interests are concerned.

W. L. MARSHALL, Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army.

[Third indorsement.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, February 9, 1909.

Respectfully returned to the chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, inviting attention to the foregoing report of the Chief of Engineers, Ü. S. Army. ROBERT SHAW OLIVER,

Assistant Secretary of War.

The following correspondence gives important information concerning the bill:

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 2, 1909.

MY DEAR Mr. STEVENS: Inclosed please find official communication from the board of supervisors of the town of High Landing, Red Lake County, Minn., requesting a change in the location of the permit to build a bridge, included in the omnibus bridge bill approved May 20, 1908, and of which I spoke to you this afternoon. Kindly use your influence to get a report upon this bill, H. R. 27531, which I have introduced to-day, at the next session of the committee, and very much oblige, Yours, respectfully,

Hon. F. C. STEVENS,

House of Representatives.

H. STEENERSON.

HIGH LANDING, MINN., January 29, 1909.

DEAR SIR: Whereas a petition is filed in this office, signed by 47 citizens and legal voters of this town, praying to have the permit to build the bridge across the Red Lake River changed from section line between sections 29 and 30, to section line between sections 28 and 29 for the following reasons:

First. The section line between sections 28 and 29 would bring the bridge more in the center of the town and to a section line which has been traveled for a period of four years.

Second. This location is at a point where there is a post-office, creamery, two stores, and a blacksmith shop.

Third. Where the location is now of the proposed bridge that section line has never been traveled or opened up for road, and people living east and south of the abovementioned place of business have to go 2 miles farther to get there by having the bridge where it is now located.

Now, we, the supervisors of the town of High Landing, Red Lake County, Minn., upon close investigation and new developments of the country since our last petition, dated March 10, 1908, find that such a change is necessary for the betterment of the community and the most convenient for all concerned.

We therefore petition you that you get the permit changed to section line between sections 29 and 28 in township 153, range 40.

Given under our hands this 29th day of January, A. D. 1909.

CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

CONGRESS,

REGULATION OF COMMERCE.

FEBRUARY 13, 1909.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. TOWNSEND, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 27894.]

The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 27894) amending an act to amend an act entitled "An act to regulate commerce," approved February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and all acts amendatory thereof, and to enlarge the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, approved June 29, 1906, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it pass.

Letters hereto attached, and made a part of this report, from Hon. James S. Harlan, member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and Prof. Henry C. Adams, statistician for the commission, give information as to the need of the legislation contemplated in this bill.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION,
Washington, February 6, 1909.

DEAR MR. MANN: I address this letter to you in the hope that you may find the matter of interest and that it may enlist your aid. It is certainly one that demands prompt attention.

The twentieth section of the act to regulate commerce contains a paragraph making it a misdemeanor for any person, among other things, to destroy any account, record or memoranda of the facts and transactions kept by a common carrier. For your convenience I inclose a copy of the paragraph in question. The result of the provision has been to impose a very great hardship upon the railroads. As you will observe, it is both peremptory and comprehensive, and under its terms the carriers have felt that they could not destroy any of their records of any kind. We have been appealed to for relief. Railroad documents and papers accumulate in almost inconceivable numbers in short periods of time. If I am not mistaken, it was stated by an official of the Pennsylvania Railroad that its waybills accumulate to the extent of several millions a month. And it has been compelled to rent warehouses in which to store such documents in order to comply with the requirements of the paragraph to which I refer. The same is true of other carriers; all are finding it most burden. some to comply with that provision in the law.

The commission in its last annual report, as you will see at page 87, recommends that authority be given it to issue orders from time to time prescribing the documents that may be destroyed after a given period and also prescribing the period of time during which documents shall be retained. And we very much hope that some amendatory act will give us the power to relieve the carriers of this unnecessary burden. We would of course act only after a very careful consideration of the matter and would prescribe a definite period of years-in some cases as much as twenty yearsfor the preservation of documents that ought to be available for such periods of time. There are many documents, however, the force and effect of which is carried into books of account, or otherwise recorded, and become useless after one year or even shorter periods of time. There are many duplicates that could be destroyed after a period even of six months.

I venture to inclose a draft of a bill covering my personal view of the amendment that should be made, and although I understand that it is not likely that any special legislation will be enacted at this session it would, in my judgment, be a real public service if some such measure could be put through.

I shall be in conference on Monday and Tuesday, and leave on Tuesday night for the West. But should you care to have further information and will write me to that effect here, Mr. Adams, or some one else who is familiar with the matter, will call upon you.

Very sincerely, yours,

Hon. JAMES R. MANN, M. C.

JAS. S. HARLAN,

Commissioner.

House of Representatives, Washington.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION,
BUREAU OF STATISTICS AND ACCOUNTS,
Washington, February 6, 1909.

MY DEAR MR. TOWNSEND: I find that the matter relative to the destruction of documents, of which I spoke to you yesterday, has been taken up by Commissioner Harlan with one of the members of your committee, and it is not necessary, therefore, to trouble you with personal responsibility in this regard.

Repeating what I said yesterday, the situation is as follows: Under the law as it was passed it is construed by the commission as depriving it of any right to relieve carriers of the requirement that no accounts, documents, or memoranda kept by them shall be destroyed. Many of the carriers have kept practically everything since the Hepburn Act, and the cost of keeping and storage is becoming a real burden to them.

What the commission desires is that Congress shall grant it authority to prescribe what documents are to be preserved, and how long. The point is covered by one of the recommendations of the commission in its report to Congress, as will be seen by turning to the latter part of that report.

I am somewhat embarrassed at having troubled you with the matter, but when 1 spoke to you I had reason for believing that nothing had been done in this connection.

Very truly, yours,

Hon. CHARLES E. TOWNSEND,

HENRY C. ADAMS,
In charge of Statistics and Accounts.

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

O

CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

MONUMENT TO CHARLES VERNON GRIDLEY.

FEBRUARY 13, 1909.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. THOMAS, of North Carolina, from the Committee on the Library, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 28107.]

The Committee on Library, to whom was referred the bill No. 26989, entitled a "Bill to aid the Gridley Memorial Association in the erection of a monument to Charles Vernon Gridley, late a captain, United States Navy, and John P. Vincent Gridley, late a lieutenant, United States Marine Corps," respectfully report in lieu of said bill the accompanying substitute with the recommendation that said substitute bill do pass.

The policy of the Committee has been to require that associations organized for the purpose of the erection of monuments should make contributions toward the erection of such monuments equivalent to the Government appropriation, or substantially the same amount. In view of this fact the Committee on the Library has provided in the substitute bill that the amount of $15,000 shall be raised by the Gridley Memorial Association, being an equal amount to that appropriated by the Government. The Committee has also made the usual proviso that after the erection of the monument it shall remain in the care and keeping of the Association without further expense to the United States. With these provisos the Committee reports the substitute bill favorably, believing that the Government should give recognition to the memory of the men who bore such a prominent part in the war with Spain.