Col. WADSWORTH. It was the rate that was made after the war was practically over. There was a rate that we got the benefit of, or we had a contract by which we got the benefit of a certain rate, but when the war came on the next year they would not make a contract.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there no way to develop your own water supply?

Col. WADSWORTH. No, sir.

Mr. Wood. Do the private water consumers pay those outrageous rates down there?

Col. WADSWORTH. Yes, sir; I am sure that is the rate established by the public utilities commission. We had a favored rate before the

war.

The CHAIRMAN. Do they not make a rate according to the quantity of water consumed?

Col. WADSWORTH. It is on a graduated scale.

The CHAIRMAN. And it averages this amount you have given?
Col. WADSWORTH. It averages more than double what we paid last

year.

The CHAIRMAN. You ought to pay not more than 4 cents per thousand gallons.

Col. WADSWORTH. We are not buying it anywhere for that.

The CHAIRMAN. Do they furnish it to you as cheap as to other users?

Col. WADSWORTH. Our average would be less.

The CHAIRMAN. It should be supplied for about 4 cents per thousand gallons.

Col. WADSWORTH. If you take our water item, gas item, and coal item, and the cost was $108,000——

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). Nine-twelfths would be $108,000, and six-twelfths would be $72,000.

Col. WADSWORTH. Our coal and gas would bring us to over $100,000 in all. I am not speaking of coal at $9 per ton, because we did not figure it at $9 last year. Our gas and coal at that basis would have amounted to more than what we submitted. The cost was abnormally high there and higher than at any other place in the United States except the Eastern Branch.

The CHAIRMAN. You do not know whether you estimated on coal at $9 per ton or $6 per ton.

Col. WADSWORTH. We were paying at that time $9 per ton.

Gen. Woon. My recollection is that the estimate was at the rate of $6 per ton. We had been paying before the war about $4.50 or $5 per ton; but they have now got into competition with the bunkers of the entire world, and it is bad competition.

Col. WADSWORTH. Last year the rate was so abnormally high that we did not take that as the basis.

The CHAIRMAN. Is water included in this fuel item?
Col. WADSWORTII. Water is especially mentioned there, is it not?
Gen. Woop. Water is not mentioned in it, but water is paid from it.
Col. WADSWORTH. Water is paid from the household item.

The CHAIRMAN. Of course, everybody knows that you must have

water.

Col. WADSWORTH. That is where it is paid, and also our gas.

The CHAIRMAN. You think there is no possibility of getting along without this $30,000?

Col. WADSWORTH. No, sir; our figures run beyond that. They run to $30.722.

Mr. ANTHONY. What is the climate down there? Is it not supposed to be a mild winter climate?

Col. WADSWORTH. Yes, sir; we do not have any extreme winter weather there, but we have a great many days like to-day when we require as much heat as in cold weather. It is a good deal like the California climate. In California we must provide heat on more days than at almost any other homes in the country.

The CHAIRMAN. What was the amount of the water bill.

Col. WADSWORTH. The water bill there would run about from sixteen to eighteen thousanad dollars a year.

The CHAIRMAN. We will say it is $17,000 for water, and, as I understand, that is at the rate of 17 cents per 1,000 gallons.

Mr. ANTHONY. How do the water bills run at other homes? Col. WADSWORTH. The water bills vary. Our water at the Leavenworth Home is running at the rate of about $1,500 per month during the summer months, and it is probably lighter in a few months. Gen. Woop. I would like to add one thing, and that is that in a home like Hampton, which is primarily a home for old men, you must maintain a very high temperature in the barracks. They are very old men, and want warm barracks.

HOSPITAL.

Mr. Wood. For the hospital you have an estimate of $20,000, covering pay of medical officers and assistant surgeons, matrons, druggists, etc. Tell us the reason for this deficiency.

Col. WADSWORTH. The hospital item covers the pay of personnel and supplies that go into the hospital. That is one item that shows the effect of our increased hospital efforts, and it is nearly all covered by personnel, as indicated by our schedule of employment there. We had to put on an additional number of trained nurses, an additional number of ward attendants, and, perhaps, from 25 to 30 per cent more

surgeons.

Mr. Woop. Is this entire item of $20,000 represented by increased hospitalization?

Col. WADSWORTH. Yes, sir.

Gen. WOOD. It is completely accounted for by what I said earlier in the hearing about the transfer of three or four hundred cases down there.

Mr. Woop. What has been the increase in the hospital expenditures there by reason of the added number of inmates coming through this consolidation?

Col. WADSWORTH. If you will give me the figures under the schedule of what was estimated for personnel-

Mr. Woop (interposing). That appears to be $16,000, and there is an item of $75,000 for wages.

Col. WADSWORTH. That would give a total of $91,000 for personal services, and our total expense for that purpose now is $110,000.

The CHAIRMAN. Was this estimate made before you had that increase?

Col. WADSWORTH. Yes, sir; that was made before the character of charge changed definitely.

Mr. WOOD. Would $16,000 for salaries and $75,000 for wages answer all the purposes of the hospital but for this addition? Col. WADSWORTH. I assume that it would.

The CHAIRMAN. How did you come to the conclusion that you would need $20,000 additional?

Col. WADSWORTH. I came to that conclusion upon the statement of actual expenditures here, but I would reach that conclusion without looking at that at all, because I am dealing with actualities. I am basing it upon what we have spent and upon what we need to spend before the end of the year.

Mr. WOOD. A part of this estimate of $20,000 is a deficiency, and part of it is a supplemental estimate, because I take it that you have not made a deficiency of $20,000, but you are estimating upon what additional expenditures will have to be made before the end of the

year.

Col. WADSWORTH. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOOD. What did you base your estimate upon; did you base it upon the expenditures you have already had this year?

Col. WADSWORTH. Yes, sir; we based it wholly upon our estimated expenditures, taking what we have expended up to this time. From that we estimated what we must necessarily expend before the end of the year.

Mr. WOOD. I think you have stated that these additional expenditures are on account of additional personal services.

Col. WADSWORTH. Practically all for services. I would say that 90 per cent of it is for services.

Mr. WOOD. What would the other portion be for?

Col. WADSWORTH. For additional supplies. We have increased the hospital capacity. In my cash statement I have not separated the services from the other expenditures.

ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEES.

Mr. SISSON. Does your record show the additional employees. including doctors, nurses, cooks, waiters, etc., or will it show the additional number of employees separated by classes?

Col. WADSWORTH. I have not that data with me here, but I can give it to you approximately. We increased the number of certain classes of employees.

Mr. SISSON. At the beginning of the year you had a certain number?

Col. WADSWORTH. Yes, sir.

Mr. SISSON. What is the number now?

Col. WADSWORTH. I will first take the trained nurses: At the beginning of the year we had 14 and now we have 24 or 25.

Mr. SISSON. Suppose you supply a statement of the additional employees for the record.

Col. WADSWORTH. I can supply that for the record. As I understand it, you want the increased personnel.

Mr. SISSON. Yes.

PAY AND ALLOWANCES OF MEDICAL OFFICERS.

The CHAIRMAN. We would like for you to tell us what you pay your medical officers and how you employ them, whether you employ them at an annual rate, a monthly rate, or whether you pay them in fees.

Gen. WOOD. I can give you that information right here. I have here a table of the pay and allowances, and the chief surgeon at the Southern Branch receives $3,000.

The CHAIRMAN. That includes subsistence?

Col. WADSWORTH. No, sir; he pays his own subsistence.

Mr. WOOD. Are you speaking about the salaries as you are about to increase them, or do you refer to the regular hospital salaries? Gen. WOOD. Regular hospital salaries.

The CHAIRMAN. Does the chief surgeon have quarters allowed him?

Gen. WOOD. Quarters, but not subsistence.

The CHAIRMAN. What are the quarters worth?

Gen. WOOD. I suppose the quarters are worth about $50 or $60 per month.

The CHAIRMAN. Does he get heat and light?

Gen. WOOD. Yes, sir; heat and light are included.

The CHAIRMAN. What other allowances has he?

Gen. WOOD. None.

The CHAIRMAN. What are the rates of pay of the other medical officers?

Gen. Wood. The senior assistant surgeon gets $210 per month. These are full-time men, and they do nothing else.

The CHAIRMAN. Does he get any allowances?

Gen. WOOD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Quarters, heat, and light?

Gen. WOOD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. How does his house compare with that of the chief surgeon?

Gen. Woop. It is probably not as good, but it is a good, comfortable house. The next class get $190 per month and the juniors get $180 per month.

The CHAIRMAN. These are permanent appointees?

Gen. WOOD. Yes, sir; permanent full-time men.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you have any trouble in getting medical officers at those rates?

Gen. Wood. It is not so easy.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you any shortage?

Gen. WOOD. We have no shortage now, but we have had a pretty heavy shortage, and the chief surgeon has been kept pretty busy getting them.

The CHAIRMAN. That was during the war, was it not?

Gen. WOOD. And since the war. During this last current year, or 1921, we have had pretty hard work in filling the medical staff. It is now practically full. The pay runs from $180 per month for junior surgeons to $250 per month for senior surgeons.

Mr. WOOD. Are these young men, or do you have men who are superannuated?

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Gen. WOOD. We have cleaned house, and we have but few of the older men left. I might say that I know of only one man who is affected in any way or is at all threatened with that.

Mr. Woon. You regard these men as good, up-to-date physicians? Gen. WOOD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Is the amount of work imposed on this branch of the service sufficiently large to justify the request for this additional appropriation?

Gen. WOOD. We have increased in the hospital, and the number of patients is practically doubled. We are only asking $20,000 increase in the appropriation.

The CHAIRMAN. What you are asking now is what you asked before?

Gen. WOOD. Yes, sir.

Col. WADSWORTH. That, however, has no relation to what we are asking now. What we are asking now is what we need to get through the year on.

The CHAIRMAN. But it has a relationship to us.

Col. WADSWORTH. It so happens that it does come close to it.

The CHAIRMAN. It happens that all these figures are exactly what you asked for before.

Col. WADSWORTH. No, sir; I do not think all of the items agree. I think you will find that the totals agree pretty closely.

Gen. Woop. There is one thing more: I have figured it up, and we have one doctor to practically 80 patients in the hospital, which is not a large allowance.

The CHAIRMAN. One doctor to 80 patients.

Gen. WOOD. Practically that.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the practice generally?

Gen. Wood. I do not know. It depends upon the class of patients. Mr. SISSON. Do you mean that that is the actual number of sick people?

Gen. WOOD. When you say the actually sick people, that includes the 300 cases of senile-dementia. While they are sick, they are not bed patients.

Mr. SISSON. But they are patients being waited on by the doctor. Gen. Wood. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the average age of the men in this institution?

Gen. WOOD. The Civil War men average about 79 and the SpanishAmerican War and Philippine War men will run about 45 or 46. We have a Civil War membership at the Southern Branch of threefourths of the men on the rolls: one-fourth are Spanish-American War veterans, and we have 11 from the World War.

Mr. SISSON. When you give the number of patients to each doctor. that has no direct relation to the number of inmates?

Gen. Woop. No, sir; that simply relates to the people in the hospital.