told the committee that we would probably need no additional help in the office to assist in the audit, but that was under the original legislation. We would have been able to handle it without additional help under the original legislation, but when they threw the doors open wide enough to take in such classes of claims as I have mentioned, it became necessary to actually audit the books of every contractor, and that put a burden on the office that we could not handle. The Secretary of the Treasury authorized me under the statute to bring in superintendents from the field to help out on that work, but under the law we can not bring them in for longer than 30 days at a time. When they had been here 30 days I had to take them over and put them on the regular force of the Supervising Architect's office and keep them there until I was afraid of a deficiency, and then let them go back to the field. We have not handled the work as rapidly as Congress expected us to handle it, and we are asking legislation that will allow us to bring in some of our field force temporarily for this purpose.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you be able to complete the work in any event before the end of the fiscal year?

Mr. WETMORE. I should think so. There would be $100,000 additional required. We have $128,000 which we can not pay because we have not the money.

MARINE HOSPITAL, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.

The CHAIRMAN. For extension to the water-supply system and repairs and additional fire-protection system, including necessary work incident thereto, for the San Francisco (Calif.) Marine Hospital you are asking $31,000.

Mr. WETMORE. The marine hospital at San Francisco was origi nally constructed about 30 years ago. It has been added to from time to time, and recently during the war the capacity of this station was practically tripled. The water supply for the station was installed about 30 years ago, when the size of the station, as I have stated, was about one-third of what it is now. The water-supply pipe is too small and is largely worn out. There is no adequate fire protection, and none has ever been provided other than hose racks and hose in the building, which were supplied by inadequate risers and supplemented by portable chemical apparatus. The appropriation requested contemplates an entirely new water-supply system, including two 100,000-gallon redwood tanks, with foundations, etc.. complete: a new pumping apparatus, conduits, and wiring, etc.. for pumps, and all of the necessary work in connection therewith to make the water supply and fire protection apparatus for this station complete and satisfactory. The present tanks are leaking, and the staves are said to be soft. A considerable saving would be effected by this in the matter of the purchase of water. The nearest fire hydrant is about 1,000 feet from the station.

We made up estimates on which we took bids last year to see what it would cost, and the lowest bid we had was $26,960. The bids ranged from that amount to $31,724. The Government has spent somewhere around $400,000 altogether on the buildings on the site. The buildings constructed during the war are largely of nonfire

proof construction, and, as I have said, there is no adequate fire protection. This $31,000 would be very good insurance.

Mr. WOOD. How many buildings are on the site?

Mr. WETMORE. I can not tell you the number, but I will furnish that for the record.

NOTE.-There are about 25 buildings of various sizes and types on the site. Mr. Woop. What is the character of the buildings?

Mr. WETMORE. The buildings that were originally constructed about 30 years ago were brick, but those built during the war emergency are wooden buildings.

Mr. Wood. Is there any necessity for keeping these buildings in operation? You say they were put in to meet the war emergency. Mr. WETMORE. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOOD. Why should the necessity continue, since the war is over, if they were put in there for war purposes?

Mr. WETMORE. They enlarged the hospital there along with a great many other hospitals, and they are still continuing with their hospital program. I notice that there is a. bill in Congress now providing $18,000,000 more for hospitals.

Mr. WOOD. We had a report here to-day that they have more beds than they know what to do with in the hospitals. How many patients do they have out there in this hospital?

Mr. WETMORE. I am not familiar with that, but I can get that information from the Public Health Service.

NOTE. The capacity of the hospital is 275 beds. The site comprises 86 acres, but the buildings are concentrated on one portion.

Mr. BYRNS. Do they obtain their water supply from the city?

Mr. WETMORE. Yes, sir; it is the city water supply. We have to purchase water, but I do not know whether we purchase it from the city or from a private corporation.

Mr. WOOD. Assuming that this $31.000 was allowed, how would it be expended?

Mr. WETMORE. I can not from this report of the inspector segregate the items, but I can tell you what they are. There is required an entirely new water supply system with entirely new pipes. The pipes that they have in there are too small and are practically worn out. They have been underground for over 30 years.

Mr. WOOD. Have they had estimates made of the cost?

Mr. WETMORE. They have segregated estimates, but I do not have them with me, showing the amount to be expended for pipe; the amount to be expended for the two 100,000-gallon redwood tanks, and the amount required for the new electrical pump and pumping machinery. Then there is included in this estimate the placing underground of electrical cables. They have a high tension cable overhead that carries 2,200 volts of single phase transformed current, and it is considered more than desirable to get that underground on account of the danger it might occasion in case of storm, fire, or anything of that kind.

Mr. WOOD. That is in addition to the water supply?

Mr. WETMORE. I think that is included in the estimate.
Mr. Wood. Who prepared this estimate?

Mr. WETMORE. It was prepared in my office.

Mr. WOOD. I wish you would put that in the record. When was that estimate made?

Mr. WETMORE. At the present session of Congress. The date of the report from my superintendent out there, on which this estimate is based, is July 26, 1921.

Mr. Woon. I was wondering how you could get the electrical apparatus you are talking about put underground under this language. Mr. WETMORE. I do not see that myself, and I do not believe we could do it under that phraseology.

Mr. Woop. It might be done on the theory that it is fire protection. Mr. WETMORE. This pump is to be electrically operated and it might be done in connection with that, but it does not look to me as though the language would cover the placing of the cable, as a distinct item, under ground.

Mr. Woon. I doubt it. Who made this investigation?

Mr. WETMORE. Mr. Luther E. Jenner.

Mr. WOOD. He is the man who made the estimate?

Mr. WETMORE. No, sir: he is a mechanical inspector of the Supervising Architect's Office with headquarters in San Francisco.

Mr. Wood. I suppose that estimate was made on the basis of the cost of material at the time it was made?

Mr. WETMORE. Material and labor.

Mr. Woop. The cost of both material and labor has been reduced since then. I do not know to what extent the cost of material and labor has been reduced in that section of the country, but the material and labor that would enter into that sort of construction are not as high here and in the middle section of the country as at the time that estimate was made.

Mr. WETMORE. The estimate was made quite recently. The report on which this estimate was based was made on July 26, 1921. Mr. Woop. I thought it was before that.

Mr. WETMORE. No; July 26, 1921.

NOTE. The estimate of $31,000 is segregated as follows:

Two 100-gallon redwood tanks, with foundations, towers, and new pipe-line to tanks___.

$15,000

One new electric-operated pump, with controller.

6,300

Underground conduit with necessary wiring to motor of pump... Piping from tanks to buildings and new fire-protection piping, hydrants, etc...____

1.700

8,000

Total.

31,000

OPERATING SUPPLIES.

Mr. Wood. You are asking for a deficiency appropriation of $164.009 for operating supplies. Tell us about that and the necessity for it.

Mr. WETMORE. That is a deficiency in the appropriation out of which we purchase heat, light, power, water, ice, pay for the removal of ashes and rubbish and the washing of towels, and out of which we purchase lighting supplies and miscellaneous items for the care of over 1,200 public buildings.

Mr. Woon. In the District?

Mr. WETMORE. Not throughout the country. The amount appro priated by Congress was not sufficient in itself to have furnished fuel, pay for the removal of ashes and rubbish, and furnish the light

and lighting supplies that go with it, such as bulbs, electric lamps, and things of that kind, and would not have left a dollar for water for cleaning purposes or for use in the toilets, not a penny for ice, not anything for washing towels, and not anything for the miscellaneous items, which include such things as soap, brushes, sponges, chamois skin, and everything that is used in cleaning the buildings, and everything that is used by the engineer force in the operation of the mechanical equipment. The deficiency is largely due to the cost of fuel and light. We could not have properly maintained the public buildings without heating them and without lighting them, and you can not very well maintain them without cleaning them. There has been no improvident use of this appropriation. We have bought coal cheaper than anybody, except perhaps the War Department. We bought, in the majority of instances at the mines in carload lots delivered to the communities, and we had to pay the freight and the drayage. After this estimate had been made freight rates were increased, which was an item that we could not estimate in advance. We did not get as much money as we asked for; Congress cut the appropriation to start with, but if we had been given every dollar we originally estimated we would still be away below our needs.

Mr. SISSON. The increased freight rates would more than absorb your deficiency?

Mr. WETMORE. We now have bills on hand amounting to $130,-594.51; the vouchers are actually in the office; 6,200 vouchers are in the office unpaid.

The CHAIRMAN. You have already absorbed the $2,500,000?

Mr. WETMORE. Yes, sir. We have used the $2,500,000, and $550,000 more than was given by way of deficiency, and we now want $164,000 further.

The CHAIRMAN. Will that amount last for the rest of the year? Mr. WETMORE. That will pay all of the outstanding obligations. This is for 1921, last year, a year that has gone by.

Mr. SISSON. Is this an actual and ascertained deficiency?

Mr. WETMORE, Yes, sir.

COST OF COAL.

The CHAIRMAN. Tell us at what price you bought coal. You say you bought it cheaper than anybody else, but you do not give us the price.

Mr. WETMORE. In round numbers it averaged about $5.50 a ton at the mines for soft coal and about $9.50, I think, for anthracite. The CHAIRMAN. At the mines?

Mr. WETMORE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the average cost at the place of delivery? Mr. WETMORE. The freight and drayage cost about the same as

the coal did.

The CHAIRMAN. Then you did not buy coal for anything like what other people bought it?

Mr. WETMORE. We bought coal cheaper.

The CHAIRMAN. They tell us that at the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers they are buying coal and having it put in the basements for $6.

Mr. WETMORE. We bought coal in Illinois as cheap as $3 a ton, or something of that kind.

The CHAIRMAN. We would like to know what the cost is and not just a guess at it. If it has cost you $10, your statement that you bought it cheaper than anybody else is far out of the way. Seven dollars and some cents is the highest price we have had reported for many branches of the Government-that is, this year-but this is for last year.

Mr. WETMORE. Yes; this was the fiscal year 1921.

Mr. SCHAEFER. The price has been reduced since then.
The CHAIRMAN. What are you paying now?

Mr. SCHAEFER. We took the average price for 100 buildings, and on anthracite coal the local dealers charged $9.70; the mine-delivered price was $11.67, and the average we paid was $10.66. That is the delivered price.

The CHAIRMAN. That is anthracite?

Mr. SCHAEFER. Yes. For bituminous coal the local dealers charged $8.63: the mine-delivered price was $8.71, and the average we paid was $8.40.

The CHAIRMAN. That is for 1921?

Mr. SCHAEFER. Yes; and that is the delivered price.

Mr. WooD. What are you paying for that same kind of coal now? Mr. SCHAEFER. Well, I suppose there has been about a 20 per cent reduction.

Mr. WOOD. You mean it is 20 per cent cheaper?

Mr. SCHAEFER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the status of the present appropriationhas it been apportioned?

Mr. WETMORE. Yes, sir: we follow the requirement of Congress to apportion as well as we can, but fuel is one of the things that must be purchased early in the year. To get the advantage of a low price the coal must be purchased in the spring, and Congress has given us special authority to do that, but it does not afford the relief that was expected, because we can not pay for it at that time; we can make contracts with people who are willing to wait for their pay, but we can not pay until the appropriation becomes available. April is the time of the year when the price of coal is the lowest, and we try as much as we can to have our contracts let at that time, but we can not always get people to do business on that basis-that is, wait until June or July for their money.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1921.

WAR DEPARTMENT, QUARTERMASTER CORPS. STATEMENTS OF BRIG. GEN. J. M. CARSON, CHIEF, CONSTRUCTION SERVICE, OFFICE OF THE QUARTERMASTER GENERAL, AND CAPT. C. I. BAZIRE.

MILITARY POSTS, UNITED STATES.

Mr. ANTHONY. General, you are the head of the Construction Bureau of the Quartermaster's Department?

Gen. CARSON. I am the Chief of the Construction Service, Quartermaster Corps.