4th Session. No. 295. AMERICAN PROPERTY INTERESTS IN ISLE OF PINES. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING, IN RESPONSE TO SENATE RESOLUTION 392, A REPORT BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE ON LANDED AND OTHER PROPERTY INTERESTS OF CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE ISLE OF PINES. JANUARY 29 (calendar day, FEBRUARY 2), 1923.-Read; and, with accompanying papers, ordered to lie on the table and to be printed. To the Senate: I transmit herewith a report by the Secretary of State in response to the resolution adopted by the Senate on January 3 (calendar day, January 4), 1923, requesting him to inform the Senate "how many citizens of the United States have landed or other property interests in the Isle of Pines, and the amount and value of such lands and other property owned by them." THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, February 2, 1923. WARREN G. HARDING. The PRESIDENT: The undersigned the Secretary of State has received through the Secretary of the Senate an attested copy of a resolution adopted by the Senate on January 3 (calendar day, January 4), 1923, as follows: Resolved, That the Secretary of State be, and he is hereby, directed to inform the Senate how many citizens of the United States have landed or other property interests in the Isle of Pines, and the amount and value of such lands and other property owned by them. In response thereto, the Secretary of State has the honor to lay before the President the following information with a view to its transmission to the Senate, if his judgment approve thereof: The latest information received by the Department of State on the subject matter of the Senate resolution is contained in a dispatch, dated January 13, 1923, from the American consul at Nueva Gerona, Isle of Pines, and a telegram from Maj. Gen. Enoch H. Crowder dated January 26, 1923. In his dispatch the consul reports as follows: It is manifestly impossible to estimate accurately the value of the land and other property belonging to American citizens without a long and expensive survey, but it may be possible to deduce from available data some idea of the amount and value of their holdings. As many land titles have never been recorded by American landowners in the local registry office, it is only possible to estimate the total number. From the best available sources of information it is estimated that about 10,000 Americans own Isle of Pines land and that their holdings aggregate 90 per cent of the whole island. As only about 700 Americans reside permanently in the island, it is obvious that the great majority of the landowners reside in the United States. A citrus fruit grove may be estimated as worth $1,000 per acre, on an average. As there are 10,470 acres of groves their value would be $10,470,000. The other land owned by Americans is estimated as worth $11,280,000, including the growing crops and timber, making the total value of American-owned land $21,750,000. The value of the land not grove property is arrived at as follows: The area of the island in round figures is 800 square miles, or 512,000 acres, of which Americans own 90 per cent, or 460,800 acres. Deducting from this 10,470 acres of grove property leaves 450,330 acres of other land. This is valued at anywhere from $25 to $75 an acre. Taking it at the lowest valuation it is worth $11,258,250 without timber or crops. The growing crops of vegetables, etc., and the pine timber and other timber would easily bring this figure up to $11,280,000. This does not take into account the value of mining rights owned by Americans. Besides lands Americans own a great variety of other property, such as buildings, hotels, fruit-packing houses, stores, dwellings, barns, warehouses, schools, and churches, also stocks of merchandise, household goods, and personal effects, the steamboat line with three steamboats, other boats and vessels, motor vehicles, farming equipment, stock in the bank and in the telephone company, all of which may be roughly estimated as worth not less than $1,000,000. This is believed to be a very conservative estimate. In his telegram of January 26, 1923, Maj. Gen. Enoch H. Crowder states as follows: From best available information the estimates made by the consul at Nueva Gerona are correct, with the exception of valuation. The value of American-owned property in the Isle of Pines would not exceed $15,000,000. Respectfully submitted. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, CHARLES E. HUGHES. Washington, February 1, 1923. REPORT OF PERRY'S VICTORY MEMORIAL COMMISSION. COMMUNICATION FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING THE SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF PERRY'S VICTORY MEMORIAL COMMISSION SUBMITTED PURSUANT TO LAW TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. JANUARY 29 (calendar day, February 3), 1923.-Read; referred to the Committee on the Library and ordered to be printed. To the Congress of the United States: I transmit herewith the second annual report of Perry's Victory Memorial Commission, dated December 4, 1922, which was submitted to the Secretary of the Interior, pursuant to section 5 of the act entitled "An act creating a commission for the maintenance, control, care, etc., of the Perry's Victory Memorial on Put in Bay Island, Lake Erie, Ohio, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1919 (40 Stat. 1322–1324). THE WHITE HOUSE, February 3, 1923. WARREN G. HARDING. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: The act of Congress entitled "An act creating a commission for the maintenance, control, care, etc., of the Perry's Victory Memorial on Put in Bay Island, Lake Erie, Ohio, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1919 (40 Stat. 1322-1324), provides in section 5 that said commission, through its president and treasurer, shall make in writing a report to the Secretary of the Interior of the United States on the first Monday in December of each year, in which shall be stated the condition of the said site and memorial as to preservation and all receipts and disbursements of money pertaining thereto." The second annual report of said commission, which was forwarded to the department February 1, 1922, is herewith transmitted for your consideration with a view to submission thereof to Congress. Sincerely, THE PRESIDENT, The White House. E. C. FINNEY, First Assistant Secretary. SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF PERRY'S VICTORY MEMORIAL COMMISSION. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR: In accordance with law the undersigned beg leave to file the following annual report of the Perry's Victory Memorial Commission for the year ending December 4, 1922. The report of the treasurer of the commission for this period is as follows: Statement of account of A. E. Sisson as treasurer of the Perry's Victory Memorial Commission, from December 1, 1921, the date of last account, to December 1, 1922. Expenses incident to maintaining elevator, cost of repairs to memorial, including bronze railing......... Traveling and hotel expenses of members of commission. Salaries of employees and guides incident to operating memorial, and uniforms... Office expenses of secretary of commission. Pamphlets and other printing and engraving. Salary of custodian of memorial.. $745.35 1, 530. 14 1, 492. 26 600.73 416.06 750.00 Constructing tunnel through terrace of memorial.. 236.92 State insurance... 9.95 For retaining walls, footbridge, road, laying and fitting pipes.. 1, 044. 03 Floral emblem for vice president Henry Watterson's funeral. 35.00 Paid treasurer of commission for stenographer's charges and postage paid for the commission from Oct. 1, 1915, to Oct. 1, 1922.. 300.00 Miscellaneous expenses of custodian of memorial. 131.71 Supplies for memorial, dock charges, cartage, insurance, storage, care of grounds.. 107.45 Put in Bay Improvement Co., for light and power, season of 1922. 2, 130.00 5, 415, 69 Total........ 14, 945. 29 There was an increase in the receipts from the operation of the memorial of $966.40 as compared with the previous year. The normal costs of operation were practically the same as during the previous year. There was an increase in the number of visitors ascending to the top, notwithstanding the untoward industrial conditions of the season. This increase, as our previous reports have shown, has been continuous, year by year, since the memorial was. opened to the public in 1915. In 1922, as formerly, the memorial was not only self-sustaining but earned a net revenue. As heretofore pointed out, the only unfortunate aspect of the interests which Congress gave into the hands of the commission when the Government took over the memorial by the act approved March 3, 1919, relates to the condition of the grounds surrounding the memorial and their protection and the protection of the memorial itself from injury by storms and movements of ice. As usual, extraordinary expenses were incurred during the past year, made necessary in order to enable the public to reach the memorial-as, for instance, the buiding of a footbridge some 600 feet long across the swamp, and the repair of retaining walls. It was also necessary to construct a tunnel through the new filling around the formerly exposed foundations, so as to gain access to the basement under the terrace. Minor construction work was also necessary in repairing paths, roads, etc. In addition to the outlay required for the retaining walls above noted, the commission at its annual meeting was required to authorize a further expenditure from the receipts of the season of approximately $1,400 for the same purpose, and the necessary work to be done with these funds has been contracted for. The whole economic situation relative to operation and annual repairs and improvements necessarily temporary on account of the incomplete condition of the grounds, reveals the fact that during the past year the commission was obliged to disburse or contract for the disbursement of approximately 75 per cent of its net revenue of the previous. year for purposes of protection which would not have been necessary if the property were placed in a condition consistent with the construction of the memorial itself. Instead of being able, year by year, to accumulate a surplus, as should be done, for future emergencies and to provide against depreciation of machinery, etc., the commission annually faces the necessity of dissipating its funds for temporary necessary objects. We feel that it is not necessary to point out the economic folly of this state of affairs and its ensuing loss to the Government. The conditions of imminent danger to the memorial continue as described in our former report. Since the memorial is self-sustaining, and the commissioners neither receive nor ask for any public funds for maintenance, they must at least expect that the Government will place the property in such condition as to enable them in future to retain the net earnings of the memorial for the creation of a surplus to be devoted in part to meet any depreciation or emergencies that may arise and in part to be turned over to the United States Treasury. It is estimated that if the Government upon taking over the property had placed its surroundings in a safe and decent condition there would now be on hand earnings of approximately $20,000 to be devoted to these purposes. But instead of such a highly desirable condition the commission annually finds itself practically bankrupt at the beginning of each season. Having this state of facts in mind, in our previous report the commission requested that the Secretary of the Interior recom |