vided most of their amusement by the profits of the canteens which they run by selling candies, cigars, etc. With the great number of men going into the various camps we have been unable to supply the money. The Navy League has done a great deal by leasing and turning over 110 acres of land to the fleet and establishing 10 baseball diamonds thereon, which has been of great benefit to the men. We have about 25 different places enumerated as the training camps. This $250,000 would allow about $10,000 to each camp. The CHAIRMAN. You have, all told, in the Navy, in round numbers, about 200.000 men? Commander OVERSTREET. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And you want half as much money as the War Department wants to amuse a million men? Commander OVERSTREET. This will allow an average of something like $1.50 per man. As the Army will have larger numbers in their camps the average cost per man would be less. The CHAIRMAN. In some places you will have only about 1,000 men and have about $10,000? Commander OVERSTREET. Of course, we would not give them that amount. We would pro rate the money according to the number of men at each station. The CHAIRMAN. What is proposed to be done? Commander OVERSTREET. Where the weather permits the purpose is to lay out baseball fields, as many as we can. Then, there is a great demand for moving pictures. You can entertain a whole camp at night by moving pictures with the band. Then, we want to get them the pictures from the moving-picture circuits. The idea is, in the daytime to have baseball diamonds and in the evening to have the moving pictures and the band? The CHAIRMAN. Do you not still have the canteen profits? Commander OVERSTREET. Yes; but they do not meet the big exexpenditures. For instance, they want a 150-acre field. It costs a great deal to get the field and level it. The men themselves always do a great deal of the work in laying out the diamonds. Mr. GILLETT. Do the men themselves contribute to raising money for this purpose? Commander OVERSTREET. They contribute something and they contribute largely through the canteen without knowing it; but when we meet a big proposition, where we want to lease and lay out a couple hundred acres of land, we do not have the funds. The CHAIRMAN. How is the estimate of $250,000 arrived at? Commander OVERSTREET. We figure that we will have about 25 stations that we would give an average of about $10,000 to each. The stations will average about 5,000 men. Of course, the Navy Department will prorate the money. It is hard to keep the men contented and happy, and if you can give them baseball for the daytime and moving pictures at night, it is very desirable. The CHAIRMAN. Does that have any appreciable effect on the discipline? Commander OVERSTREET. Yes, sir. If we can not furnish the amusement, they will want to go on liberty and go looking for trouble. If you can furnish them with the moving pictures at night, they are contented to stay at home. It is the old problem of amusing them at home rather than letting them go out and go into the saloons and get into trouble. If you can content your men in these camps, it means a great deal for discipline. This question of liberty, letting the men go out, to be gone over night, is a hard thing to handle in handling the enlisted men. I have seen men on the ships at the New York yard fairly contented if you give them amusement at night. When you are near a city-I have been aboard ships in the New York yard a great many times it is a hard problem to keep four or five hundred men on board the ship at night when the lights of the city can be seen by all of them; and the same thing applies to the camp, if they are at a place where no amusement is going on. In the fleet they have been able to keep the men contented and happy by having the great baseball fields. They have baseball tournaments and competition between ships and on the ships between divisions of the men. We have 70 or 80 men to each gun division. If you have eight gun divisions on a ship, you can get competition between them. That works for the good spirit of the ship. If you can work up a good spirit, you are bound to have a good ship. The happy ships are always the most efficient ones. That is the secret of an efficient shipto keep the men happy and amused. WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1917. TRANSPORTATION. STATEMENT OF COMMANDER L. M. OVERSTREET, BUREAU OF NAVIGATION. The CHAIRMAN. The next item is on page 7, as follows: For transportation, Bureau of Navigation, including the same objects specified under this head in the naval appropriation act for the fiscal year 1918, $700,000. Commander OVERSTREET. The appropriation for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917, was $1,010,254. That ran out, and on June 1, 1917, we had a deficiency of $362,000. The deficiency act of June 15, 1917, gave us $1,659,000, and the regular appropriation for the year ending June 30, 1918, is $1,060,000. We estimate that we are now spending at the rate of $250,000 per month, and that it will take $700,000 additional to provide transportation up to June 30, 1918. The CHAIRMAN. You do not need that money right away? Commander OVERSTREET. No, sir; but we will need it before the end of the next fiscal year. The CHAIRMAN. Before next June? Commander OVERSTREET. Yes, sir. Mr. GILLETT. Would you need any of it before December? Commander OVERSTREET. No, sir; but the appropriation will not run through to June 30, 1918. The CHAIRMAN. There will be plenty of time to provide for that. Commander OVERSTREET. If we keep on spending at the rate of $250,000 per month The CHAIRMAN (interposing). Even at that rate you will have plenty of money up to the 1st of January. Commander OVERSTREET. Yes, sir; we will have plenty up to January. WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1917. BUREAU OF ORDNANCE. STATEMENT OF COMMANDER C. A. KEARNEY, ACTING CHIEF. ORDNANCE AND ORDNANCE STORES. The CHAIRMAN. For ordnance and ordnance stores you are asking $12,446,480, which is in addition to $8,488,333 in the naval bill and $16,905,000 in the deficiency bill. For what purpose is this money needed? Commander KEARNEY. The first items under ordnance and ordnance stores are, briefly, for fire-control and optical instruments, such as range finders, stadimeters, gun-sight telescopes, binoculars, periscopes, range keepers, target-bearing instruments, time-of-flight indicators; in other words, the optical instruments of our fire-control system. Our estimate for these is $3,011,000. The CHAIRMAN. That is in addition to what you have already had? Commander KEARNEY. The above was a part of the detail estimate. This is our big working appropriation. This is the blanket appropriation for labor, all repairs, alterations, etc., of ordnance on ships of the Navy; in other words, it is the current working account of the bureau. The CHAIRMAN. How do you estimate you will require this $12,000,000 additional at this time? Commander KEARNEY. In part for labor, due to increased work, $3,000,000; on directoscopes for the battleships, $20,000. Ammunition expenditure counter devices, we estimate for that $6,000. rectoscopes, $100.000. Di Mr. GILLETT. May I ask a question before you go on? Are all these appropriations simply additional appropriations? Commander KEARNEY. These are additional ones. Mr. GILLETT. What causes the need of them? Commander KEARNEY. The developments due to the war, new ships coming in, procurement of new devices which war has made mandatory. Mr. GILLETT. You mean new devices? Commander KEARNEY. Yes. Mr. GILLETT. Then those would not be additional. What I mean is, whether these are all for things which have already been appropriated for, and this is to make additional appropriations for them. Commander KEARNEY. Some of the items have been covered in the past, but these are additional of the same design or of approved design. Mr. GILLETT. In other words, by this bill are you simply getting more in quantity? Commander KEARNEY. Getting more in quantity, sir. The CHAIRMAN. More in quantity, or are there in addition some apparatus which provision had not been made for? Commander KEARNEY. Some for which provision had not been made and could not be foreseen. The CHAIRMAN. So it contemplates both classes of expenditures? Commander KEARNEY. Both classes; yes, sir. The next item is high explosives, $2,000,000; for ordnance material for the Marine Corps, which amounts approximately to $2,595,480. Improvements at the naval proving ground and powder factory. That is our big Government source of powder supply and also used for the proving of guns and the proving of shells, mounts, fuses, detonators, and, in fact, everything of an explosive or purely ordnance nature. It is proved down there before being issued to the service. We estimate $214,000 for that. The total under ordnance and ordnance stores, the first subdivision of our appropriation, is $12,446,480. The CHAIRMAN. Now you have available for this year $24,000,000. Is this money needed at this particular time? Commander KEARNEY. In order to place contracts and to actually go ahead, yes, sir; we actually need this money. Under ordnance and ordnance stores we had $16,905,366. We have actually obligated $2,497,432.60, exclusive of current monthly allotments to navy yards. The CHAIRMAN (interposing). You also had $8,488,333. Commander KEARNEY. That was in the regular bill. This is in what we call our No. 2 emergency bill. We have actually expended by contract to date $16,905,366. We have actually obligated The CHAIRMAN (interposing). You also had $8,488,338. Commander KEARNEY. That was in the regular bill. This is in what we call our No. 2 emergency bill. We have actually expended by contract to date $2,497,000 out of this $16,000,000. Mr. GILLETT. Have you spent all of your original $7,000,000? Commander KEARNEY. No, sir; we must retain in this appropriation our current working fund; in other words, we allot monthly to each of the navy yards and stations Mr. GILLETT (interposing). I understand that. Commander KEARNEY. So far having obligated practically $3,000,000 of our $16,000,000, I have left just $13,000,000 to cover the yard expenditures, repairs to ships, ordnance work, payment of labor, ordnance material for Marine Corps, and all of the items which come up regularly every month, and based on that, this indicates a probable deficiency of approximately $13,000,000. The CHAIRMAN. Has there been any allotment to this fund from the emergency appropriation? Commander KEARNEY. You refer now to the $115,000,000 appropriation? The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Commander KEARNEY. Yes, sir; we got approximately $22,000,000 out of that and that has been obligated. That was obligated, in major part, for the ordnance features of the 110-foot chasers, the new type of boat; ammunition; machine guns; and armament and ammunition for destroyers. The CHAIRMAN. Out of the $115,000,000 you got $22,000,000? Commander KEARNEY. We got $22,000,000, as I recall. We become now one of thte active bureaus so far as expenditures go; that is, every act of war is an expenditure of ordnance material. Mr. GILLETT. Why did you not know your need for this money when you came in with your $16,000,000 deficiency estimate? Commander KEARNEY. Frankly, you can not tell your needs from day to day. AMMUNITION FOR VESSELS. The CHAIRMAN. For ammunition for vessels you are asking $25,000,000, and you have had so far $85,000,000. Commander KEARNEY. Not only are we providing ammunition for these sectional patrol vessels, but we are also providing for every American merchant ship engaged in trans-Atlantic trade. providing also for the vessels being constructed or to be constructed by the Shipping Board. Our estimate under this subhead for procuring, purchasing, preserving, and handling ammunition for vessels is $25,000,000. The CHAIRMAN. But that will not all be spent this year. Commander KEARNEY. We hope to contract for practically all of it. The CHAIRMAN. If this money is available until the 1st of July of 1918, you think you can expend it all? Commander KEARNEY. Yes, sir; every cent of it. As I prefaced my remarks, I would not be surprised if we were back here in a few months for more. BATTERIES AND OUTFITS FOR VESSELS. The CHAIRMAN. The next item is "Batteries and outfits for vessels: For batteries and outfits for naval vessels, auxiliaries, patrols, aircraft, naval stations, and merchantmen, $22,000,000, to be available until expended." We gave you $22,333,000. Commander KEARNEY. We have already obligated under that $18,499,000; that is on requisitions and contracts placed, and we have a balance out of that original appropriation of less than $3,000,000. The CHAIRMAN. Will this all be required this year? Commander KEARNEY. Every bit of it, sir. Our first sum up under that is $103,000,000. RESERVE AND MISCELLANEOUS ORDNANCE SUPPLIES. The CHAIRMAN. The next item is "Reserve and miscellaneous ordnance supplies: For reserve and miscellaneous ordnance supplies, $30,000,000, to be available until expended." You have had $33,900,000? Commander KEARNEY. That embodies the procurement of nets, depth charges, mines, and other fittings. The CHAIRMAN. How much have you already expended? Commander KEARNEY. We had $29,000,000, and we have obligated $23,000,000 already. As I said, Admiral Earle, who is the chief of the bureau, was suddenly taken to the hospital yesterday, and I did not have a chance to see the Secretary; if I had seen the Secretary, I would have urged him to increase the amount under this item, but not having taken it up with him, I will not mention it. Mr. GILLETT. Is there any particular reason for inserting these words, "to be available until expended"? Commander KEARNEY. It is quite desirable. |