Mr. KERWIN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Can you tell us how that occurred?

Mr. KERWIN. Yes, sir. If you will remember, the National Railroad Labor Board, which was presided over by joint chairmen, Hon. William H. Taft and Mr. Frank P. Walsh-their services terminated along late in August and the unfinished business was turned over to us, and that necessitated, for the time being, closing up their business and fiscal affairs and taking over 13 of their employees for one month. There was occasionally considerable transportation. tried to get that all in at the time and supposed that we did have it. but along late in the fiscal year 1921 the railroads sent in some transportation bills in connection with the service.

The CHAIRMAN. What transportation?

Mr. Love. There are in my office $1,700 of railroad and $800 of telegraph bills.

The CHAIRMAN. Would there have been money enough in the appropriation if the bills had been sent in before the appropriation Îapsed?

Mr. KERWIN. No; I do not think there would have been.

The CHAIRMAN. Was the appropriation exceeded?

Mr. KERWIN. We tried always to leave three or four thousand dollars for unpaid bills, but this avalanche came down and left a deficit of $2,500. We thought that we were all right; we never dreamed of this deficiency.

The CHAIRMAN. How soon did they come in?

Mr. Love. They have been in the office approximately eight months. The CHAIRMAN. Why should they not have been estimated for, or could they have been estimated for in the regular appropriation?

Mr. KERWIN. This was in the nature of an aftermath of the war.
The CHAIRMAN. Have those bills, been audited?

Mr. Love. Yes, sir; I have audited them, and they are ready.
The CHAIRMAN. You are sure that they are all right?

Mr. Love. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. This obligation for transportation was created on orders of the department at the time?

Mr. Love. Yes, sir; this was all ordered by the commissioners of conciliation.

The CHAIRMAN. $1,700 for transportation and $800 for telegraphing?

Mr. Love. Yes, sir.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1921.

COURT OF CLAIMS.

STATEMENT OF MR. J. BRADLEY TANNER, CLERK OF THE COURT.

REPAIRS TO HEATING PLANT, ETC.

The CHAIRMAN. The item in which you are interested appears on page 35, “Court of Claims: Repairs to heating plant, $4,100; painting, $2,500; electrical fixtures, $600; repairs to annex building. $2,500; miscellaneous items, $300; in all, $10,000." Will you be kind enough to explain the necessity for this appropriation?

Mr. TANNER. Starting with the most important item, namely, the heating plant, the present heating plant in the building of the Court of Claims was installed almost 20 years ago. It consists of two high-pressure water-tube boilers, a piping system, and radiators. These boilers, while we have used them for this extended period of time, were never boilers intended for a heating system; they are high-pressure boilers which are primarily intended for power.

The CHAIRMAN. You have to get up steam?

Mr. TANNER. That is the idea exactly. We can get absolutely no heat until we get a high pressure of steam.

Mr. ANTHONY. Why is that?

Mr. TANNER. Because they are high-pressure boilers.

Mr. ANTHONY. I do not see what difference that would make. It does not take 5 pounds of steam to force live steam through the heating plant?

Mr. TANNER. That is so as to an efficient low-pressure boiler plant, but our high-pressure boilers require a high pressure of steam. At the present, however, that question is absolutely immaterial, because the boilers are completely worn out.

The CHAIRMAN. The tubes are gone?

Mr. TANNER. The tubes are gone, the boilers are entirely gone. We have had them 20 years. They have been patched and repatched. The CHAIRMAN. Do you have an inspection of them?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Évery year?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir; we have used them just as long as we could possibly use them. Last winter when it became apparent that they could not be further repaired I took up the matter with Mr. Elliott Woods, the Architect of the Capitol, under whose supervision all such repairs have heretofore been made, by specific directions in the appropriation bills. Of course, I had already made a careful survey. Mr. Ward, our custodian of the building, is an expert furnace man himself. He had gone through the matter thoroughly and had obtained estimates. I submitted these estimates, with the matter, to Mr. Elliott Woods. Mr. Woods caused a survey to be made upon his own account, the same as he had always done in matters of this kind before, and he confirmed not only the necessity but the figures, and in connection with these other matters which I will come to later he informed me that he had communicated with the chairman of the Appropriations Committee and had recommended an appropriation of $15,000, but that since the institution of the Budget Bureau it would be necessary for me first to present this matter through the Budget Bureau. So thereupon I took up the matter with the Budget Bureau. I had an interview with Mr. Dawes and Mr. Dawes also had a survey made, being the third survey, and after such survey not only confirmed our figures but increased our figures and recommended $4,100 where our figures were $4,037.50.

The CHAIRMAN. The $4,100 is for the heating plant?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That includes the piping?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And the radiators?

Mr. TANNER. And changes in the radiators.

The CHAIRMAN. Can you use the same radiators under this plan! Mr. TANNER. We can use practically all of them; we may have to install a few extra ones.

The CHAIRMAN. It will be a hot-water plant?

Mr. TANNER. We propose to install a vacuum plant so that in the intermediate seasons, like the spring and fall, we can obtain sufficient heat with merely the vapor without getting up a fire and using so much coal.

The CHAIRMAN. A vacuum plant, I think you will find, will be more expensive to operate than a steam plant would be.

Mr. TANNER. If you will pardon me, the plant we propose to install is a vacuum plant which can be used either in the form of vacuum or steam plant. We can get just enough fire to allow the vapor to arise in the pipes, which will create sufficient heat to carry us through the intermediate seasons, and then, as the cold weather approaches, we can get up steam which will carry us through the cold weather. We have made a very careful calculation and I figure that, with the installation of this new heating plant, we can cut down our coal bills at least 33 per cent. We can save the price of this new plant in about five or six years and it ought to last 20

years.

The CHAIRMAN. How long will it take to install this plant?

Mr. TANNER. As I have already said, I took up the matter early in the spring, but the matter dragged along, not through anybody's fault, so that while at the present time we can only put in the boilers and connect them up with the old pipes, in the spring we can put in the new piping.

The CHAIRMAN. You can not utilize the old pipe system?

Mr. TANNER. A portion of it; but a large part of the old piping system is disintegrated, and especially that which is underground. The CHAIRMAN. You think there is no chance to get along without this heating plant?

Mr. TANNER. We have reached our limit, sir.

Mr. KELLEY. How long will it take to install the boilers?

Mr. TANNER. About two weeks. We can get them up in time and leave the rearrangement of the piping until next spring.

The CHAIRMAN. If you can leave the rearrangement of the piping until next spring, can not this go for one winter?

Mr. TANNER. No, sir. The present arrangement of the piping is uneconomical, and by the rearrangement we can get much better results. Our coal bill is the largest item of our very small contingent fund.

COST OF COAL.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the coal worth?

Mr. TANNER. We are compelled to pay whatever the Bureau of Mines charges. It is averaging us at the present about $8.30 a ton. The CHAIRMAN. What kind of coal?

Mr. TANNER. We use a fine bituminous coal.

The CHAIRMAN. And you pay $8.30 a ton?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. They tell us that the Smithsonian Institution only pays $7 and a fraction a ton.

Mr. TANNER. All I know is that the law requires us to purchase all fuel from the Bureau of Mines, and that is the charge. They make all arrangements for heating the Government buildings.

The CHAIRMAN. They operate the fuel yard here?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir. That $8.30 also includes a certain amount for storage of the fuel, because we have no place where we can store a large amount.

The CHAIRMAN. The Smithsonian Institution buys its coal from the same yard and I should like to know why they charge one branch of the service $8.30 and another branch of the service $7 and something. Can you find out?

Mr. TANNER. I will certainly endeavor to. It is a matter of the utmost importance to me.

The CHAIRMAN. And please put that in the record?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir.

Mr. KELLEY. Does the $8.30 include delivery?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir; that includes everything until we get the coal in our cellar.

The CHAIRMAN. Both deliveries are alike?

Mr. TANNER. I do not about that.

Upon inquiry at the Bureau of Mines I am informed that the difference in cost per ton paid by the Court of Claims and the Smithsonian Institution arises from the fact that the Smithsonian Institution is heated from the central heating plant of the National Museum, which heating plant is a large one equipped with a modern, economical heating apparatus, which is automatically and mechanically fed, thereby permitting the use of a cheaper grade of coal. The heating plants in most of the departments, as I am informed, and in the Court of Claims, which latter is a comparatively small plant, have to be fed with fuel by hand and the lowest grade of coal that can be used is that known as run of the mine," which, as I have already stated, is costing us at present $8.30 per ton, incluling stowage. The heating plant of the National Museum is what is known as a "stoker" plant, which can be run with the grade of coal known as "stoker" or nut and slack" coal, which is almost the lowest grade of coal, and which, I am informed by the Bureau of Mines, is being supplied by it to the National Museum at present at $7.47 per ton, exclusive of stowage. The stowage would be about 35 or 40 cents a ton, which would make the total cost of the "nut and slack coal about $7.87 per ton.

As I have said, the Court of Claims occupies the building which was originally erected and was occupied for a great many years by the Corcoran Art Gallery. It is a building which when built was totally unadapted to the uses of a court, and during the 30 years of the court's occupancy of the building we have been endeavoring to adapt it to the proper uses of the court. It consisted originally of exceedingly large rooms, with tremendously high ceilings, from 40 to 55 feet, and we have been compelled to put in partitions, to change partitions, and to do all the things that are necessary to make a building of that character conform to the uses of a court. It has been a very difficult undertaking, because we have had to do it on exceedingly small appropriations made from time to time and we have done it little by little. We have not yet completed it.

REPAINTING OF WALLS.

The CHAIRMAN. What are you going to do with the $2,500 for painting?

Mr. TANNER. That, in the first place, is for the repainting of the walls of our courtroom, which now look considerably as if they had the smallpox.

The CHAIRMAN. How long since the walls were painted?

Mr. TANNER. Twelve years ago. It is also necessary to repaint the conference room and to repaint certain portions of the hallways. Our original estimate for painting to cover the entire building, a large portion of which has never been painted since the court has been there, which is a period of 30 years, and which at present is so dirty and so filthy and so dusty that it is not fit for human occupancy, was $7,000.

Mr. ANTHONY. Outside or inside?

Mr. TANNER. Inside. That was included in a request made to Congress last winter by Mr. Woods, but Congress denied the request and gave us a little money to make absolutely necessary repairs upon the outside of the building.

The CHAIRMAN. It looks very well on the outside?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir; if it were not for the fact that the brownstone ornamentation has disintegrated.

The CHAIRMAN. It looks very well. You have to have $2,500 to do some painting that has not been done for 12 years? Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir.

ELECTRICAL FIXTURES.

The CHAIRMAN. Electrical fixtures, $600. What is the purpose of that?

Mr. TANNER. I am going to do this: I am going to substitute for an indirect and expensive system of lighting, which has been in that building for a great many years

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). Inverted lighting?

Mr. TANNER. Yes, sir; up behind the cornice. There are about 400 bulbs back of the cornice in the court room and so we utilize 400 bulbs and do not get enough light for one to read or see by. The same situation exists in the rooms of the justices of the court and in various other portions.

The CHAIRMAN. What do you propose to do?

Mr. TANNER. I am going to get from Mr. Woods, the Architect of the Capitol, about 13 or 14 chandeliers which will contain about s or 10 bulbs each.

The CHAIRMAN. He has them in storage?

Mr. TANNER. He has them in stock and has consented to let me have them. I have already proved the efficiency of that arrangement by installing the same kind of a chandelier in my own rooms and in one or two other rooms.

The CHAIRMAN. How much more of an economy will it be?

Mr. TANNER. I figure that we will save about 20 per cent on the lighting, or maybe more.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you know how much it is costing you now?