On the south side 1759-1829. Sacred to the memory of Brigadier General Daniel Stewart, a gallant soldier in the Revolution and an officer breveted for bravery in Indian wars. The tablet on the west side contains a bas relief of the old Midway Church. Amount appropriated by the sundry civil act approved Aug. 24, 1912 July 1, 1914, balance unexpended___ June 30, 1915, amount expended during fiscal year.... Unexpended balance, deposited with Treasurer of the United States_ $10, 000. 00 171.61 9, 828.39 9,796. 79 ERECTION OF MONUMENT IN THE MONTGOMERY, ALA., DISTRICT. District officer: Maj. Earl I. Brown, Corps of Engineers. Division engineer: Col. L. H. Beach, Corps of Engineers. MONUMENT AT HORSESHOE BATTLE GROUNDS, ALA. 31.60 The sum of $5,000 having been appropriated by Congress a tentative program for competition in design was prepared and submitted, at a total cost of $37.58 for travel expenses. The battle ground was visited by the district officer, a site for the monument selected, and photographs taken of the various points of interest thereon. Amount appropriated by the sundry civil act approved Aug. 1, 1914 $5, 000, 00 June 30, 1915, amount expended during fiscal year.. 37.58 4,962. 42 DAN C. KINGMAN, Chief of Engineers, United States Army. REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ORDNANCE. WAR DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ORDNANCE, October 1, 1915. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report on the principal operations of the Ordnance Department during the past fiscal year, together with certain remarks as to its interests and necessities: The statement giving the receipts and expenditures of the Ordnance Department under general headings for the fiscal year of 1915 is herewith submitted in tabular form so as to show the data under the various appropriations made for the service of this department, including those for experiments conducted under the direction of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification and for the purchase of submarine mines, the control of which rests with the Chief of Coast Artillery. The tables constituting the statement show that on July 1, 1914, there was in the Treasury and in the possession of disbursing officers the sum of $13,944,320.12. The total amount of the appropriations and allotments for the fiscal year 1915 was $19,125,343.53. The total amount with which the appropriations were credited in accordance with law from sales, transfers, etc., was $1,606,727.31. The total payments made by disbursing officers and by Treasury settlements during the year amounted to $16,099,153.19. The total sales of condemned stores during the year amounted to $93,051.06, all of which was credited on the books of the Treasury Department to "Ordnance material (proceeds of sales)." The total sales to other parties covered into the Treasury Department to the credit of the fund "Miscellaneous receipts" amounted to $5,600.95. The total amount to the credit of disbursing officers on June 30, 1915, was $2,156,686.12, and the total amount in the Treasury on the same date was $16,344,088.01. FUNDS ON HAND AT THE BEGINNING AND CLOSE OF THE FISCAL YEAR. The principal amounts on hand at the beginning of the year pertained to the following appropriations: Replacing ordnance and ordnance stores, 1914 and 1915.. Ammunition for field artillery, Organized Militia, 1914-1916. The status of these appropriations at the close of the will be seen by reference to the tabular statement. pertained to the following appropriations: Field artillery for Organized Militia, 1914-1916.. Ammunition for field artillery, Organized Militia, 1915-1917. Armament of fortifications.. $1,249, 819.83 2,099, 998.95 2,941, 650.52 1, 187, 347.62 2,367, 176. 87 fiscal year fiscal year $1,399, 718. 03 2,089, 707.03 2,859, 505.77 976, 657.06 5,323, 966. 35 The balances under the appropriations "Field artillery for Organized Militia, 1914-1916" and "Ammunition for field artillery for Organized Militia, 1915-1917" are available for the fiscal years 1916 and 1917. Of the above amounts reported on hand at the close of the fiscal year the greater portion in nearly every case had been allotted to meet outstanding obligations. The available balances under the above-named appropriations at the close of the fiscal year are as follows: Field artillery for Organized Militia, 1914-1916.. Ammunition for field artillery, Organized Militia, 1915-1917. Armament of fortifications.. $1,667.72 687, 745.66 2,033, 387.89 100, 412.46 887, 713.00 It will be seen, in the case of the above-named appropriations, that they were largely obligated at the close of the fiscal year, except in the case of those appropriations which had recently been made and increased by Congress. TRANSFERS AND SALES OF SERVICEABLE ORDNANCE STORES. The value of ordnance stores transferred to the executive departments and the Organized Militia during the last fiscal year amounted to $2,267,256.06. Of this amount, $545,615.37 was on account of transfers to the Navy Department; $152,383.08 on account of transfers to the Marine Corps; $240,965.17 on account of transfers to other executive departments; and $1,328,292.44 on account of transfers to the Organized Militia. The practice of advancing militia funds to this department directly at the beginning of the year, that the procurement of the stores required may be inaugurated, mentioned in my last annual report, has worked satisfactorily and is being continued. To secure similar handling of Navy funds covering stores transferred, a provision was inserted in the last Army appropriation acts approved March 4, 1915 (38 Stat., 1084), authorizing that department to place its funds subject to requisition by disbursing officer, of this department for the purpose of effecting the procurement of such stores by manufacture or purchase. This system, when fully inaugurated, should result in increasing the supply of stores in the hands of this department. In other cases settlement is made directly or by Treasury settlement, the money received being taken up in the fund "Replacing ordnance and ordnance stores," and remaining available during the year in which the corresponding stores were transferred and the following year. The total transfers and sales amounted to $1,606,727.31. PAYMENTS. The total payments made by disbursing officers amounted to $14,961,527.47, and by Treasury settlements to $1,137,625.72, a total of $16,099,153.19. The appropriations proper for the year amounted to $19,125,343.53. The amounts of disbursements made at the principal arsenals and in the Ordnance Office during the fiscal year are as follows: Frankford Arsenal.. Ordnance Office. $4,762, 573. 29 3, 467, 425. 04 808, 306. 28 782, 057.02 942, 177. 32 1, 173, 295. 61 2, 205, 396. 26 AMOUNTS COVERED INTO THE SURPLUS FUND. The principal amounts covered into the surplus fund of the Treasury were: Ordnance service, 1913.. Ordnance stores and supplies, 1912 and 1913. Repairs of arsenals, 1913.. Replacing ordnance and ordnance stores, 1912 and 1913. $1,726. 32 1,282. 14 1,857.52 995. 27 407.99 COMPARISON OF THE FISCAL STATEMENT WITH THAT OF THE PRECEDING YEAR. Comparing the fiscal statement with that of the preceding year it will be found that the amount of appropriations was increased from $10,214,136.02 to $19,125,343.53, an increase of $8,911,207.51. This amount appears large as it includes the sum of $3,980,200 appropriated by the fortifications act approved June 27, 1914, which would, under ordinary circumstances, have appeared in the report for the fiscal year 1914. If the appropriations under the fortifications act for 1915 only were included and the $3,980,200 included with the funds appropriated for the fiscal year 1914, this amount would be $950,807.51. The amount of disbursements increased from $14,740,533.67 to $14,961,527.47. The amount received from transfers to the executive departments and the Organized Militia decreased from $2,252,948.79 to $1,328,292.44. The amount available for disbursement at the close of the fiscal year increased from $13,944,320.12 to $18,500,774.13, an increase of $4,556,454.01. CHANGE IN FINANCIAL FORMS. During the year the financial forms used in reporting money accountability have been changed. Heretofore each bureau of the War Department had its own set of forms for this purpose. A War Department committee prepared a set of forms, which were approved by the Comptroller of the Treasury, for the use of all bureaus of the War Department, and these are now in use. Those adopted were quite similar to those previously in use in this department, and no apparent inconvenience has resulted from the change. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT. The practice of scientific management, as it has been in use at some of the arsenals, was interrupted to a slight extent by legislation contained in the Army appropriation act approved March 4, 1915. This legislation prescribes that no funds appropriated in the Army appropriation act shall be expended in the payment of any officer or employee engaged in making a time study of an operation, or for the payment of any premium, bonus, or cash reward to any employee over and above his regular wages. Time studies were in practice at one arsenal only-the Watertown Arsenal-and premium payments were made at two-the Watertown Arsenal and the Frankford Arsenal. The legislation does not forbid piece-work payment; such payment has since been held by the comptroller to be permitted. The work at the Frankford Arsenal lends itself readily to payment upon the piecework system, and the change from one method of payment to the other was made soon after the law became effective. This arsenal was, therefore, practically unaffected by the law. The work at the Watertown Arsenal does not lend itself readily to the piece-work system of payment, but is done principally under appropriations carried, not in the Army appropriation act, but in the Fortifications act, to which the prohibitive legislation in the Army act does not apply. The system of premium payment has therefore been continued at the Watertown Arsenal, and the employees have not been directly affected by the new legislation, with the exception of a few unfortunates who are engaged in the hauling of supplies for the Quartermaster Department, whose pay, as a consequence, has been reduced by the loss of premiums. In submitting for the action of the comptroller the question as to the legality, under the prohibitory legislation, of piecework payment, this department stated the essential difference between piece-work payment and premium payment to be that, whereas both make the compensation of the individual dependent upon his output, the latter assures a fixed minimum, while the former does not. The method of payment which is more advantageous to the workman is therefore the one which has been forbidden in connection with appropriations carried in the Army appropriation act. As the officers of the department are the ones who have been directing the taking of time studies at the Watertown Arsenal and are paid out of appropriations carried in the Army appropriation act, the legislation has been effective in prohibiting the making of time studies, and they have therefore ceased. Time study has two principal objects: One is to ascertain the best order and sequence in which a given job of work should be done, and the other the ascertainment of the time which it should be reasonably expected to take when thus performed. The second object is the one which permits a rate to be set for the work, so that it may be paid for in accordance with the time which it occupies. The rule in regard to rate setting at the Watertown Arsenal has been that the rate shall be such as to permit the earning of a premium amounting to 33 per cent of his regular pay by a man doing a job in the time shown by the time study to be reasonable for a man properly fitted for the job. That the rates set have closely approached this condition is shown by the fact that the premiums earned by the workmen have averaged something over 25 per cent of their regular pay. It is to be understood that the regular pay is that of the vicinity, and that the scale has not been reduced since the introduction of the premium system of payment. In my last annual report, and in various other ways in the line of my duty, I have urged that congressional action in regard to the system of scientific management in operation at the arsenals should not be taken in advance of the receipt of the report of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations created by the act of August 23, 1912. An investigation of the operation of the system at the Watertown Arsenal had been made in 1912 by a special committee of the House of Representatives, which had recommended that no legislation should be had upon the subject at that time, and no real investigation has in the meantime been held. The commission did not itself make an investigation at the Watertown Arsenal, but it employed a committee, not of its own membership, to do so, of which Prof. Robert F. Hoxie was chairman and the other two members were Mr. Robert G. Valentine, representing the employers' interests, and Mr. John P. Frey, representing those of labor. This committee made a detailed and thorough investigation and submitted a report to the commission. I have not seen a copy of this report, and therefore do not know whether or not the committee saw anything to condemn in the practices which it found at the Watertown Arsenal. I have, however, received a copy of the final report of the Commission on Industrial Relations, in which appears a report of Mr. Basil M. Manly, |