for each of the divisions. Now, as I say, this estimate represents my idea of what the office needs. The bill represents Mr. Smith's idea of what he might get through, and I am simply making every effort I can to get some relief.

The CHAIRMAN. Last year you asked for $1,581,960.

Mr. EWING. Yes. This present supplemental estimate was our regular estimate of last year, and your point was that you would not consider this because it was really reconsidering what the House

had turned down.

The CHAIRMAN. In March, before Congress had convened, you wrote to me and spoke to me about it and I told you I did not think Congress would reconsider it.

Mr. EWING. You wrote me to that effect.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, I probably wrote you so far as I was able to tell I doubted whether Congress at this extra session would start in and review all of its actions of last session.

Mr. EWING. I am sorry I have not your letter. Mr. Fitzgerald, but as a matter of fact, it was after Congress had convened and you wrote that the committee would not consider it.

The CHAIRMAN. I would not be surprised at that. Why should we? Congress convened on the 2d of April, and you wrote me in March, and I probably wrote you that I did not think Congress would take up the reconsideration of items that had been submitted by the department at the last session of Congress and refused. You might just as well expect every man who applied for a patent and had it denied to come in and ask you to do the whole thing over again.

Mr. EWING. Now, Mr. Chairman, this is the point I want to make plain: The war has created an emergency for the office, and it is doubly important, in view of this war situation, that people should be able to get their applications passed on, and passed on promptly, because their applications and their patents are the basis of the business which they want to develop in the things that are important in this war; and while Congress might have refused me last fall the necessary force to bring the work up to date and keep it there and do the work properly, in the face of the emergency that the country was facing, they should reconsider that action. Now. that was my point, and I think the point is absolutely sound: and I think it is a reason why Congress should reconsider the estimate of last year; but I will take anything I can get, of course, because I want to do what I can to get the work in proper shape. The conditions are not going to be what they are now. They are going to be worse. They are growing worse, and anybody who is trying to get something on the market or get financial backing for something which may be of value in this situation wants his patent as the basis of his work, and he is hung up for four or five months and perhaps longer. If it is something that is of special importance in the war, it is still longer, because those classes are most crowded and we can not take men off of one class and put them on another class and have them examine patents in arts with which they are unfamiliar. Besides, as I said, the whole work of the oflice is not falling off but is increasing.

FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1917.

REPAIRS TO TEMPORARY COURTHOUSE, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

STATEMENT OF MR. ELLIOTT WOODS, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE CAPITOL.

The CHAIRMAN. "Courthouse, Washington, D. C.: For general repairs to the temporary quarters (known as the Emery Building) occupied by the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia during the reconstruction of the courthouse, $2,000, to be expended under the direction of the Superintendent of the Capitol Building and Grounds and to be payable one-half out of the Treasury of the United States and one-half out of the revenues of the District of Columbia."

Mr. Woods. Mr. Chairman, at the time provision was made for rental no provision was made to take care of the incidental wants of the court in the way of construction. General repairs and care of the building are in the hands of those who rent the building to the Government, but there are incidental matters connected with the court that require some little expenditure of money. That can not be stated in detail, but it is estimated it will take that much money to care for these incidental matters during the coming year. They will be in that building at least another year.

The CHAIRMAN. How much of the building do they occupy?
Mr. Woops. They occupy fully one-third of it.

The CHAIRMAN. Is the rest of it vacant?

Mr. Woods. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Could not the rest of it be utilized by some other force?

Mr. Woons. It could; yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there any other place we could put those courts for the present and get the whole building?

Mr. Woods. Not very well. I think they are in as good a location as they could possibly secure.

The CHAIRMAN. But if we wanted the building for the use of some of the departments

Mr. WooDs (interposing). I do not know of any other building at present. I have not thought about that lately.

COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF.

NEW DORMITORY FOR WOMEN.

The CHAIRMAN. You are also asking $21,000 additional for the new women's dormitory at the Columbia Institution for the Deaf. Mr. Woods. That is based on an average increase in materials and labor since the building was provided for. Our estimates at the time were based on the prices of material and labor at the time the appropriation was made, but increases have been considerable and very rapid in the last six months, so that I think we will be about $21,000 short; in fact, the bids received during the last two or three days show that my average increase of 15 per cent is rather low. It is

astonishing how some things have gone up, ranging, in building materials, anywhere from 15 per cent to 60 per cent.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you not contract in advance for all that material?

Mr. WOODS. We could not in this case. You see the appropriation was made for the building at the last moment and we had to simply make a hurried estimate and then start in and build it ourselves, letting it out by separate contracts. It took three or four months to get all the details worked out, and as fast as they were worked out we immediately let contracts. In the meantime these price increases kept up and we have had to account for them, and will have to account for them until we complete the building, which we expect to do by the middle of next October.

FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1917.

STATEMENT OF HON. FRANKLIN K. LANE, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

CONSTRUCTION OF RAILROADS IN ALASKA.

Secretary LANE. Mr. Chairman, I want to call your attention to the estimate we have made and the request that has been presented for an additional appropriation at this time of $4,000,000 for the Alaskan Railroad. This map [indicating] shows what we have done. The little black marks show the railroad where track has been laid; that is, from Seward to Mile 71; and then comes that terrible stretch at Turnagain Arm, which is almost solid rock, where we have done an unexpected amount of work this last winter owing to the fact that we had a comparatively open season from Kern Creek over toward Anchorage. We have got the road now completed from Anchorage up midway into the Matanuska Valley, and we are pushing it on, so that in a couple of months we will have it up to Chickaloon.

Mr. GILLETT. The Chickaloon coal field is where they get the good coal?

Secretary LANE. Yes; that is the coal which was tested for the Navy. It might interest you, Mr. Gillett, to know that this coal singularly runs from lignite in the southwestern end of the valley to anthracite in the northeastern end of the valley, and as you progress up the valley the character of your coal increases in value. This Chickaloon coal is high-grade bituminous coal which tests up to the standard of the Pocohontas fields. We have also in the last few days made a strike up in the Susitna Valley of coal alongside the track. What that field amounts to we do not know, but that is an entirely new body of coal. You see, we have been working up the valley and carrying most of our supplies up to Susitna River and working up toward Broad Pass. Here is Mount McKinley over here indicating]. Then we have been working from the Tanana River down toward the Nanana coal field here.

Now the situation is this: The price of supplies has gone up. The estimates that were made last year were made in August and those

estimates were too low for the amount of work that had to be done in view of the increase in labor cost and the increase in the cost of supplies. Owing to the fact that supplies were increasing very rapidly in cost, we have made contracts for about $6,000,000 of supplies which eats up a very large portion of the appropriation you have made.

Now I have sent a commission, thinking you would want to know just what the situation was, consisting of Mr. Meyer, one of my assistants who has this matter locally in charge, and Mr. Sheppard who was a railroad man on the Pacific coast, and Mr. Went, one of the engineers of the Interstate Commerce Commission and formerly the chief engineer of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad-I think that was his railroad-to Alaska to look over the whole situation so as to be able to report to you in December, or whenever you desire, just what the practical course would be.

It may come down to a business question of whether or not it is advisable, with the high cost of rails and of labor and of other supplies to push our road through the Susitna Valley immediately or whether it might not be advisable for us to satisfy ourselves at present with connecting up the Matanuska Valley with Seward, so that the Navy could get its supply of coal either at Anchorage or at Seward, and connecting up the Nanana field with the Tanana River so that that coal field could be made available for the Fairbanks mining district. At any rate, the proposition I would urge now is that we be allowed a sufficient amount of money to push the Turnagain Arm end of the work. That was estimated to cost $80,000 a mile. Our figures now show that we are running about 22 per cent over the estimate. The work we have done justifies that statement, and that is accounted for entirely on the ground of higher labor cost and high supply cost. I think that probably is not an excessive increase in the cost. It does not show any false estimate as to cost of bridges or the engineering features of the work. We have got rail laid on something over one-third of the entire route. We have got clearing done for a much larger amount and grading done for a larger amount, of course, than the rail covers.

If we get, as we will within the next 60 days, our road up to Chickaloon, then we will have a through line from the lower part of the Susitna Valley and from the Chickaloon coal field down to Seward, when we get the Turnagain Arm division finished, and that is what we want to work on this fall and winter.

The CHAIRMAN. When you get up to Chickaloon you will have the road finished from there to Anchorage, and from Anchorage how many miles?

Secretary LANE. Fifteen miles or so south of Anchorage.

The CHAIRMAN. And this money is needed for work along Turnagain Arm?

Secretary LANE. For work along Turnagain Arm. It is to carry on the general work, but particularly we want to push that Turnagain Arm work so we can have part of the road entirely completed. The CHAIRMAN. As soon as that is done it will be necessary to do a very large amount of work on the line from Seward to Mile 71?

Secretary LANE. We are doing that; reconstructing the road and putting in bridges and changing the road.

The CHAIRMAN. Reconstructing it so that it will bear the loads that are eventually contemplated?

Secretary LANE. That is just it; yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. It is not in that shape now?

Secretary LANE. It is not in that shape now, but it will be by the time we have the Turnagain Arm work finished. We are running a light railway up there now.

Mr. GILLETT. How long do you contemplate it will take to finish that Turnagain Arm work?

Secretary LANE. This winter and until the middle of next summer. The CHAIRMAN. If that much work was done, then you would have access to these more or less valuable coal deposits?

Secretary LANE. Yes. We have that now, Mr. Chairman, at Anchorage, but we do not have it at Seward.

The CHAIRMAN. Anchorage is not an open, all-year port?
Secretary LANE. No.

The CHAIRMAN. Are they taking any coal out there now-I mean is any shipped?

Secretary LANE. No; none is shipped. It is used purely for the town of Anchorage and the railroad.

Mr. SHERLEY. How far up will you have to go into the Chickaloon coal fields to strike the anthracite?

Secretary LANE. About 20 miles farther; but we have not anticipated doing that now nor did the original estimates, because it involved crossing the river again with an expensive bridge, and we can get as high-grade coal as is needed right at Chickaloon."

Mr. SHERLEY. Has there been any examination of that anthracite coal?

Secretary LANE. I do not think there has been any real test made of it. You see, it is a very inaccessible part of the country. It cost a good deal of money to get the coal out that was tested from the Chickaloon coal fields.

Mr. SHERLEY. Where are you getting the coal now?

Secretary LANE. At Martin's mine, somewhere down here [indicating].

Mr. SHERLEY. Is that near the lignite part of the field or is it well into the coal fields?

Secretary LANE. It is in the low-grade bituminous. There was another mine opened farther down the valley to the southwest that is a high-grade lignite, out of which we have taken some coal.

Mr. SHERLEY. Have you gotten into the good bituminous coal at all?

Secretary LANE. Yes; we have a good domestic coal out of this mine that is being worked now.

Mr. SHERLEY. Is that Martin's coal good enough for naval uses? Secretary LANE. No; it is not.

Mr. SHERLEY. How much farther up is the good coal?

Secretary LANE. Just to the end of the yellow space at the Chickaloon field, which is about 14 miles.

Mr. GILLETT. Are these coal mines private property?

Secretary LANE. We have leased them. We have not leased the Chickaloon body because we thought it was advisable for us to open that up for ourselves and make sure for a supply for ourselves before any other lease was made on that land, but this adjoining land to