In addition our examiners found six cases of merit aggregating 1,830.48 acres where the names of the settlers did not appear on the Townsend petition. It appears, therefore, that the number of cases in which relief is warranted is 39, covering an aggregate area of 11,627.31 acres; in addition there will doubtless be found some of the 21 cases marked doubtful which upon further examination we may be willing to concede to be entitled to relief, but it seems clear that the total number of cases to be adjusted will not exceed approximately 60, involving an aggregate area not exceeding approximately 17,000 acres. We have prepared a bill, copy of which I inclose, which I am authorized to say the company will accept if enacted by Congress and will proceed thereafter in good faith to carry out its provisions. The bill, you will observe, leaves it optional with the company to make the adjustment in each case, this being done purposely to insure that only meritorious cases will be adjusted. The lands involved average in value about $10 per acre. We are satisfied we can not select sufficient lands in Montana under this act of equal value to those relinquished, and I estimate the company will be out of pocket somewhere from $2 to $4 per acre on whatever area it may relinquish under the act. Therefore I am sure you will agree with us that we should not be asked to make this loss any higher than necessary to take care of all of the meritorious cases. Where a mere filing was made and no improvements or cultivation or residence, we do not think relief is warranted. As you will observe, we have limited our right of selection to the State of Montana in the belief that Congress would not pass a bill permitting selections to be made outside of that State; also you will note that while all of the lands to be relinquished are withdrawn or classified as coal lands, we are not asking for the right to select coal lands, but will accept the limited surface patents provided for in the act of June 22, 1910. I assume when anything further is desired that you will advise us. Yours, very truly, THOMAS COOPER. Your committee is therefore of the opinion that this legislation is just and equitable and should be passed. It allows the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. to release to bona fide settlers on lands within its indemnity limits the tracts which these homeseekers have in their possession and upon which they have made substantial improvements, permitting the company to take other lands in lieu thereof, without any mineral rights, within the State of Montana. Should the company choose any mineral lands, according to law, only the surface rights go to them. This legislation will adjust the differences existing between the settlers and the company and save the settlers their homes and the money expended in improving them. ARMY APPROPRIATION BILL. MAY 25, 1918.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. DENT, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 12281.] The Committee on Military Affairs, to which was referred the estimates for the Military Establishment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919, having considered the same, report the accompanying bill, with the recommendation that it do pass. The total estimates, including supplemental estimates, were approximately $12,000,000,000. The amount appropriated for the last fiscal year from all sources was $5,248,654,299.49. The accompanying bill carries an appropriation of $9,583,349,808.61, in addition to which $2,458,332,801 is authorized. The table marked "Exhibit A" shows, by separate items, the amounts of the original estimates, the latest estimates, the amounts allowed by the committee, and the additional amounts authorized. The table marked "Exhibit B" shows the strength of the Army on April 1, 1917, just before the declaration of war; the strength on June 5, 1917; the strength on September 1, 1917; and the strength on January 31, 1918. The table marked "Exhibit C" shows the strength of the Army in all of its branches on May 16, 1918. The Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, according to the testimony before the committee, is as follows: Number of officers, 12,107; number of enlisted men, 136,761; number of fliers, 4,054; number of machines in France, 1,316; number of machines in the United States, 3,760; number of combat machines in France, 323; and the number of aviation training camps in the United States, 27. It is reported to the committee that enlistments in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps had become so rapid that the department had to put a stop order on the same. While it has been generally rumored that we had no air planes with our forces in France, the fact is there are 1,316, of which 323 are combat or fighting machines. The committee has made provision for $937,864,425 for ordnance items, and in addition $2,458,332,801 for contract obligations. While in the beginning of the war, for a time, the Army ran short of clothing, we are informed by the Quartermaster Department that now there is a sufficient supply for every man. Beginning with a Regular Army of 127,588 officers and men, we now have, including the draft calls for April and May, an Army of 2,030,027. The committee also authorizes the following new legislation, which was considered necessary for the support and maintenance of the Military Establishment: 1. A provision that, during the present emergency, quarters for the use of focal, district, and medical advisory boards operating under the selective-service system may be rented without the formality of a lease, as required by section 3744, Revised Statutes, where the amount. to be paid is less than is customarily charged the public for the same quarters. 2. A provision to authorize the President to appoint in the Officers' Reserve Corps and the National Army, for service in the Judge Advocate General's Department, in addition to the grades now authorized, officers of the grades of first lieutenant and captain. 3. A provision to authorize the exchange of a strip of land, within the Aberdeen Proving Ground, for a tract of land situated inside the limits of the Aberdeen Proving Ground, upon the payment to the United States of such consideration, in addition to such tract of land, as the Secretary of War shall deem equitable. 4. A provision that, during the present emergency, officers of the Army, accountable for public moneys, may intrust such moneys to other officers for the purpose of having them make disbursements as their agents, and the officers to whom the moneys are intrusted, as well as the officers who intrusted such funds to them, shall be held pecuniarily responsible therefor to the United States. 5. A provision that the authority conferred upon the President by the selective-service act, approved May 18, 1917, be extended so as to authorize him during each fiscal year to raise by draft as provided in said act and acts amendatory thereof the maximum number of men which may be organized, equipped, trained, and used during such year for the prosecution of the present war until it shall have been brought to a successful conclusion. The appropriation provides during the next fiscal year for an army of practically 3,000,000 men, the pay being based upon an average pay of $2,313 per officer and $393.69 per man. Many of the estimates necessarily, in time of war, are uncertain. The committee has conducted its hearings upon this bill in executive session, making as full and complete an inquiry into the expenditures heretofore made by Congress as it possibly could under the circum stances. While some mistakes and delays have occurred, on the whole we think the country is to be congratulated that, after a little more than a year from the date of the declaration of war, our country has constructed a wonderful Military Establishment. EXHIBIT A. Condensed memoranda relative to appropriations for support of the Army, fiscal year Signal Service of the Army. 1125 Washington-Alaska Military 192 Pay, and so forth, of the Army. 28 28 349 413 428 603 629 628 765 799 937 951 1061 963 1190 Subsistence of the Army: rison equipage.. Storage and shipping fa- Horses for Cavalry, Ar- Barracks and quarters... Alaska roads and bridges, Barracks and quarters, 1204 Quarters for hospital stewards 980 Rent of buildings, Quartermaster Corps. 986 Claims for damage and loss of private property.. 988 Vocational training. 1149 Medical and hospital depart 1,500,000.00 $300,000.00 2,000,000.00 $300,000.00 9,000.00 2,000,000.00 $250,000.00 1183 Hospital care, Canal Zone. 1183 Army Medical Museum and Library... Bureau of Insular Affairs... 1,800.00 1,800.00 1,800.00 |