ARMY APPROPRIATION BILL.

JANUARY 7, 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 accompany H. R. 23551.]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the estimates for the support of the military establishment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, submit the accompanying bill therefor, and recommend the passage of the same.

The total amount appropriated by this bill is $73,339,039.65. The estimate furnished was $79,301,303.82.

This estimate may be found in Book of Estimates, pages 155 to 191, inclusive, and on page 269.

Under the head of "Pay of officers of the line is the following proviso:

Provided, That when the office of Lieutenant-General shall become vacant it shall not thereafter be filled, but said office shall cease and determine: Provided further, That nothing in this provision shall affect the retired list.

This is intended to abolish the grade of Lieutenant-General of the Army on the active list when the same becomes vacant.

Under "pay to clerks, messengers, and laborers at headquarters of divisions, and departments and office of the chief of staff," is the following:

Provided further, That section one hundred and sixty-nine of the Revised Statutes of eighteen hundred and seventy-eight be amended to read as follows:

**SEC. 169. That each head of a Department or independent bureau or officer of the Army in command at any army headquarters or post or the Office of the Chief of Staff is authorized to employ in his Department or bureau, or in any branch or division thereof or at such army headquarters or post or in the Office of the Chief of Staff, wheresoever located, such number of clerks of the several classes recognized by law, and such messengers, assistant messengers, copyists, watchmen, laborers, and other employees at such rates of compensation, respectively, as may be appropriated for by Congress from year to year."

HR-59-2-Vol 1-12

The law as it now stands reads as follows:

SEC. 169. Each head of a Department is authorized to employ in his Department such number of clerks of the several classes recognized by law, and such messengers, assistant messengers, copyists, watchmen, laborers, and other employees, and at such rate of compensation, respectively, as may be appropriated for by Congress from year to year.

This proposed change permits each head of an independent bureau or officer of the Army in command at any army headquarters or post or the Office of the Chief of Staff to employ clerks and employees appropriated for by Congress.

This has heretofore been done, but some question has been raised as to the authority of Congress to appropriate for them under existing law in the Regular Army appropriation bill.

Under Subsistence Department is the following:

Provided, That hereafter the emergency ration prescribed for use on emergent occasions shall, when issued, be furnished in addition to the regular ration, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War.

General Sharpe, Commissary-General, in his hearing before your committee gave full explanation as to necessity for this. Under the same item is the following:

Provided further, That hereafter the Secretary of War may cause to be sold at public sale, in Cuba or the Philippine Islands, under regulations to be prescribed by him, such subsistence stores in good condition, intended for issue or for sales to officers and enlisted men, as may from time to time accumulate at any subsistence depot, military post, or in the field, in excess of amounts required for use and which can not, with economy and advantage, be shipped to other subsistence depots, posts, or places for military use, the proceeds to be immediately available for general disbursement, under the appropriation for subsistence of the Army current at the time of sale for any of the objects contemplated by that appropriation.

This provision was put in the bill at the earnest request of the Commissary-General of Subsistence.

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Under Incidental expenses of the Quartermaster's Department" is the following:

Provided, That hereafter no part of the moneys appropriated for use of the Quartermaster's Department shall be used in payment of extra-duty pay for the army service men in the Quartermaster's Department at West Point.

This proviso was inserted in the bill at the earnest request of the Quartermaster-General.

Under "Barracks and quarters" is the following:

Provided further, That section nine of an act approved June seventeenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight (Twentieth Statutes at Large, page one hundred and fifty-one), be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: "That at all posts and stations where there are public quarters belonging to the United States officers may be furnished with quarters in kind in such public quarters, and not elsewhere, by the Quartermaster's Department, assigning to the officers of each grade, respectively, such number of rooms as is stated in the following table, namely: Second lieutenants, two rooms; first lieutenants, three rooms; captains, four rooms; majors, five rooms; lieutenant-colonels, six rooms; colonels, seven rooms; brigadiergenerals, eight rooms; major-generals, nine rooms; lieutenant-general, ten rooms: Provided further, That at places where there are no public quarters commutation therefor may be paid by the Pay Department to the officer entitled to the same at a rate not exceeding twelve dollars per month per room.

On this subject the Quartermaster-General said: "This gives each officer of the Army above second lieutenant one additional room or commutation therefor, but does not change the price per room."

Under transportation of Army and its supplies:

Hereafter estimates shall be submitted to the Congress of the United States covering transportation of the Army and its supplies in one estimate, and additional estimates shall be submitted covering other items heretofore carried in appropriation bills under the head of transportation of the Army and its supplies.

Your committee deemed it expedient to have estimates so submitted, that they might the better understand the requirements of the service. A specific detail of the estimates, amounts appropriated, and reductions from the estimates may be found in the following table:

a This item was estimated for in connection with other items that go to the Committee on Appropriations on page 269, of Book of Estimates.

2d Session.

COST OF FIVE LIGHT-HOUSE TENDERS.

No. 5882.

JANUARY 7, 1907.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

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

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 21689.]

The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 21689) to increase the limit of cost of five light-house tenders heretofore authorized, having had the same under consideration, beg leave to report the said bill back to the House with a recommendation that it do pass.

This bill proposes to increase the limit of cost of five light-house tenders heretofore authorized. Two of these tenders are for use on the Atlantic coast, and the bill proposes to increase the limit of cost from $135,000 and $140,000, respectively, so that it shall be $200,000 as to each tender. One tender is for the Great Lakes, and it is proposed to increase the limit of cost from $140,000 to $200,000. Two of the tenders are for the Pacific coast, and the bill proposes to increase the limit of cost as to each tender from $150,000 to $215,000. The limit of cost as proposed by the bill is $200,000 per tender for the Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes and $215,000 per tender for the Pacific coast. The difference in limit of cost does not represent the difference in the type or style or equipment of the tenders, but is the estimated cost of delivering a tender from the Atlantic seaboard to our Pacific coast.

The tenders are respectively for the third (New York), sixth (Charleston), eleventh (Lake Superior), twelfth (California), and thirteenth (Oregon and Washington) light-house districts.

A new tender for the sixth (Charleston) light-house district was authorized by the act of April 28, 1904, at a limit of cost of $130,000. Fifty thousand dollars was appropriated by that act, and the additional $80,000 was appropriated by act of March 31, 1905. In February, 1906, bids were opened for the construction of this vessel. The lowest bid was $136,000, and other bids were $168,000, $153,700, and $161,000. By act of June 20, 1906 (the omnibus light-house bill