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buildings, consisting of 5 pavilion wards, with toilets and wash rooms, nurses' quarters, hospital corps barracks, civilian employees' barracks, quarters for medical staff, operating building, administration building, mess hall, kitchen building, storehouse, garage, laundry building, and laundry equipment, disinfecting building, and disinfecting apparatus, and power plant to supply steam for operating building, laundry, sterilizing, and disinfecting apparatus, $150,000.

The CHAIRMAN. What will the capacity be?

Dr. BRAISTED. All of these temporary hospitals are built on one plan, of which I have a little book here. There is something which we have developed as a temporary hospital. You see all of these buildings follow about the same wording, and each one provides for a little temporary hospital.

The CHAIRMAN. What will be the capacity of this hospital?
Dr. BRAISTED. This will give us 200 beds.

Mr. GILLETT. Will you need 200 beds for 5,000 men?

Dr. BRAISTED. In war times we calculate on not less than 5 per cent of patients from the personnel; the Army counts on more, but we go at 5 per cent; I think the Army estimates 10 or 15 per cent.

Mr. GILLETT. You say in war times. Do you mean at the front? Dr. BRAISTED. No; I refer to the places we have here. You have here these large aggregations of men and consequently there is a great deal more of contagious diseases; you have more diseases everywhere in war times than in peace times. Our great work will not be the care of the wounded as much as it will be the care of these people we are gathering together, the general personnel which we must endeavor to keep well. We may be in one or two big engagements which will result in a great many wounded, and so on, but that is a small matter as compared to the general health and welfare of the whole personnel.

NEW ORLEANS, LA.

The next is New Orleans, with a personnel of from 5,000 to 8,000, 24 buildings, consisting of 5 pavilion wards, with toilets and wash rooms, nurses' quarters, hospital corps barracks. civilian employees' barracks, quarters for medical staff, operating building, administration building, mess hall, kitchen building, storehouse, garage. laundry building and laundry equipment, disinfecting building and disinfecting apparatus, and power plant to supply steam for operating building, laundry, sterilizers, and disinfecting apparatus. This is the same general plan that I have outlined before and will give 250 beds, and the estimated cost is $150,000.

GREAT LAKES STATION.

The next is the Great Lakes Station, Ill., with a personnel, perhaps, of 20,000, which will necessitate a hospital of at least 1.200 beds.

The CHAIRMAN. What have you now?

Dr. BRAISTED. We have now 185 beds in our permanent hospital; almost everything else is in tents, and we are carrying there about 800 patients. When those 20,000 are there we should have, I think,

2,000 beds, but I am providing for 1,200, which I think is a moderate number. This would require 49 buildings, consisting of 29 pavilion wards, hospital corps barracks, subsistence building, laundry building and laundry equipment, storehouse, garage, civilian employees' building, nurses' quarters, and heating plant, $450,000.

MARE ISLAND, CAL.

The next is Mare Island, Cal. That is simply an extension of the naval hospital there, 42 buildings, consisting of 20 pavilion wards, with toilets and wash rooms, 2 nurses' quarters, 2 hospital corps barracks, 2 civilian employees' barracks, 2 quarters for medical staff, operating building, administration building, 2 mess halls, 2 kitchens, 2 storehouses, garage, laundry building and laundry equipment, disinfecting building and apparatus, and heating plant, $175,000, which will give us a hospital capable of carrying about 1,000 patients; they have there to-day nearly 700 patients and they have had as high as 900 patients in the last two months.

The CHAIRMAN. What facilities have they there now?

Dr. BRAISTED. We have now one main hospital, which has a capacity of about 300 beds at its extremest limit; we are carrying these patients in tents and are now building these quarters for the winterthat is, quarters of this temporary character-which will expand the main hospital as they are expanding at Norfolk. Now, you asked about Alcatraz Island. This is by far and away a better scheme, because we have all of our main hospital there; we have all of our administration there, and everything, you know, is concentrated around Mare Island and will be for this next one, two, or three years, probably.

Mr. GILLETT. How is it you have so many sick at Mare Island? Where do they come from?

Dr. BRAISTED. They come from the large receiving station there, which carries thousands of men, and that is the largest source of supply of patients. We also have about 5,000 men camped there, which will be increased in number; we have all the ships that come there and the various people who are employed in the navy yard. It is a big personnel.

PUGET SOUND STATION.

The next is Puget Sound. We have a very fine permanent hospital there, which we are expanding by the addition of 10 buildings, consisting of 5 pavilion wards, 3 Hospital Corps barracks, subsistence building, and heating plant, at an estimated cost of $100,000.

JAMESTOWN, VA.

The next is Jamestown. Va., the new training camp, with a personnel of 10,000. We are providing a temporary 250-bed hospital of the same type that I have described, 26 buildings, consisting of 8 pavilion wards, Hospital Corps barracks, nurses' quarters, quarters for the medical staff, administration building, operating building, subsistence building, storehouse, laundry and laundry equipment, garage, mortuary, shops, civilian barracks, and heating plant, at an estimated cost of $275,000 and with a capacity of 280 patients. Be

sides that, we have in view, which will soon come along, Gulfport, with a personnel of 3,000 at least, and perhaps more, where we will have to provide about 100 beds.

CAPE MAY AND PELHAM MANOR.

Then we have such places as Cape May and Pelham Manor, where there will be 5,000 people. All of those places keep coming, you see, day by day, and it is hard for me to tell you exactly what will be necessary, but I see already in the distance enough to certainly take us over the $3,200,000 mark, and for which we are asking now. We will certainly spend all of that and probably have to spend, as time goes on, some more; just how much nobody knows. Of course, it is very important that we have all of this completed as soon as possible. The first thing that you want, gentlemen, in any of these camps, is some place to take care of the sick, and the most important thing that you have before you is to provide quarters for the care of the sick. The first complaints and the most bitter complaints you will hear will be those about the lack of provisions of that kind. As I told you in my first hearing, I think I have followed out my reputation in being modest in my demands. I have thought over very carefully what we ought to have. There has been no attempt to do anything but furnish, as cheaply and as carefully as we could, all of these wants, which I know from my many years of experience-I have been 17 years in this work-we are going to need.

PATIENTS IN PRIVATE HOSPITALS.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you any patients in private hospitals?
Dr. BRAISTED. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. How many?

Dr. BRAISTED. I should say that we now have all together about 125 patients. Of course, they are scattered all over the country, and that is something that grows. For instance, last night I was called on the telephone; a yeoman broke his leg and was taken to the Sibley Hospital; that means that his care will be paid for, probably, from our fund for the care of patients in civil hospitals.

The CHAIRMAN. The case you speak of is an accident, and a sort of emergency case?

Dr. BRAISTED. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Are you sending patients to private hospitals from any of these places now?

Dr. BRAISTED. Yes; several hundred in cities where these facilities are available. At times there have been 100 or so in hospitals about New York. For instance, if any of our hospitals are full, and any of our retired officers-and by law we must look out for them-should require attention, we would no doubt send them to the Georgetown Hospital, where we have a contract at $1.50 a day, or something like that. I made those contracts so that we would have some place to send these people if necessary. We also need these private hospitals for women. We do not take women in the naval hospitals, and the enlisted women have a right to treatment; and if any of them are taken seriously ill we have to take care of them, and they would probably go to one of those places. If at any of these places our hospitals were full we would of necessity have to utilize these civilian

hospitals, and nobody knows how extensive that may be necessary in many places. Take the Coast Guard Service. We will need to have hospitals to send those men to for treatment; and if any of them should be taken seriously ill we would have to send them to these private hospitals and pay for their care out of the funds which we have for that purpose.

Of course, as I say, we do not know what we may need in that direction, but I think everything is very well planned; I think it has all worked out very nicely, except that we are behind on this construction. It is construction that must be finished before winter, and if it is not finished before that time we are going to have a great deal of sickness from exposure. Everybody is living outdoors now, and things are running nicely, but just as soon as it gets cold and all of these men are concentrated in close quarters we will be where we were last spring, when we had so much trouble with contagious diseases originating, say, in Chicago and spreading to Norfolk and into the fleet. I think I have told you all the places where we are either building or contemplating building, and you can see it will run something over $3,200,000. I thought you might like to know that we are carrying in the hospitals to-day 4,123 patients; that does not mean the number of sick that we have but it means those in the hospitals. We probably have altogether as hospital patients between 6,000 and 7,000. Of course, we have the Asiatic Fleet, the Atlantic Fleet, and they are all carrying cases, and we think we should have at least hospital accommodations for about 10,000.

(See p. 241.)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1917.

STATEMENTS OF REAR ADMIRAL FREDERIC R. HARRIS, CHIEF, BUREAU OF YARDS AND DOCKS, AND CAPT. A. L. WILLARD, ACTING COMMANDANT AND SUPERINTENDENT OF THE NAVAL GUN FACTORY.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is "For yard improvements, fiscal year 1918, $5,000,000." This is submitted in connection with the item of $2,500,000 for the naval gun factory?

Capt. WILLARD. Yes; the other $2,500,000 is for the machinery.
The CHAIRMAN. Please explain this item.

Capt. WILLARD. This item is to provide an immediate increase in the ordance output. It is becoming increasingly difficult every day to place contracts for ordnance material, guns, mounts, torpedoes, and torpedo tubes. It is also very difficult to place satisfactory contracts for castings and forgings for the fabrication of this material. Within the Washington yard we have an organization that has proved efficient in the manufacture of ordnance material, and the simplest and quickest way to meet the increased demand would appear to be to expand this existing institution.

This estimate includes-as pointed out in the letter of transmittal, of July 14-an increase in the machine-shop facilities, the forging

and foundry facilities, increased facilities for the manufacture of mounts and optical instruments, and an increase in the brass and steel foundry equipment, the necessary cranes and yard facilities; powerplant extensions, and storehouse facilities to handle this work. Aside from the urgent military necessity of these things, the Government manufacture of this material has enabled us to get a pretty accurate idea of the total costs of materials, which is an important thing in showing what ought to be paid on contracts for similar articles. Furthermore, a Government-owned plant takes care of the experimental work, which is always extremely expensive if done on the outside. It is very difficult also to get outside people to take hold of experimental propositions.

Practically all ordnance of the Navy is designed at the yard, and a considerable portion of it is manufactured there. Now, as an instance of some of the savings. It is proposed by this extension to practically double the output of the foundry. It is almost impossible at present to get satisfactory contracts on steel, and particularly steel castings. It is very difficult also to get bronze castings. By doubling the present output, we will make an annual saving of, say, a million and a half dollars at the present prices. That is a conservative estimate. In the forge shop we propose to increase the output of heavy forgings about 100 per cent, or to practically double it.

Mr. GILLETT. How do you mean to do that-by putting in new buildings?

Capt. WILLARD. It will be by an extension of the present forge shop, an extension of the building and additions to the equipment. Drop forgings are almost impossible to contract for now at any price. We propose by this extension to increase our output of these about five times. The bronze drop forgings for torpedoes and parts of gun mounts and guns, we expect to increase to about four times our present output. On the basis of our present output that percentage of increase would show a saving based on contract prices and our present manufacturing prices at the gun factory-or, in round numbers, $1,094,000, or, we will say, $1,000,000.

The CHAIRMAN. A year?

Capt. WILLARD. Yes, sir. I mean if we had this running to-day on the basis of what we propose to increase it to. In gun mounts and sights, we would also increase our output very much.

Mr. GILLETT. I do not quite understand how you will do that. Do you mean to say that in each case you will increase the building? How will this money be spent-for the extension of buildings?

Capt. WILLARD. It will be spent for buildings and machinery and equipment. There will be power-plant extensions, a new machine shop, a new brass foundry, and pattern-shop extensions to the steel foundry and forge shops; an extension to two existing buildings by adding a floor to each; for the optical shop and administration building, an experimental tank for mines, a tower for testing optical instruments, which has to be on piles and separated, to make it free from vibration, and which must be of very special construction. All of those various things will go into the extension of the plant. This is a matter of plant extension.

Mr. GILLETT. All of this money goes for plant extension?
Capt. WILLARD. This money goes into plant extension.
Mr. GILLETT. A part of it into buildings?

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