Capt. MCKEAN. His estimate of the value of the property, etc., was $115,000. Mr. Shay estimates $35,000 for the land and $80,500 for the buildings, the spur of railroad that runs in, the sewers, the water tower, the pipe line, the pumps, the electric wiring, the switchboard, the freight elevator, etc., making a total of $115,500. On a final agreement this special committee of New London citizens got together, and they got the price down to $90,000. The buildings are in fair shape and will be used for mine storage and net storage. The Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, Admiral Earle, has an appropriation for three large mine storehouses that he will be forced to put on Rose Island or some other site in Newport. They are very anxious to put the buildings there. If we got this property, he would immediately shift from Newport to the Shay property. All of the mines and nets to protect the eastern entrance to Long Island and the eastern protection of New York will be stored in time of peace in the buildings on the Shay property. If it is not purchased, it will be used for a fertilizer factory and is an awful nuisance.

The CHAIRMAN. Is not that the chief reason that you want to buy it?

Capt. MCKEAN. No; that was the original reason that called attention to it.

The CHAIRMAN. Is not that the chief reason? There was no proposition to get any additional land when the department estimated $1.250,000 for the development and improvement of this submarine

base.

Capt. MCKEAN. No. At that time, Mr. Chairman, I personally did not think that we needed any other property.

The CHAIRMAN. Is not that the chief reason?

Capt. MCKEAN. That is one of the reasons.

The CHAIRMAN. Is not that the chief reason?

Capt. MCKEAN. No, sir; it is not. It is to meet a need that has developed.

The CHAIRMAN. How much land have we there now altogether? Capt. MCKEAN. I do not know what the area is. It is not a suitable area for the work that we want to do and is not suitably located. The CHAIRMAN. You have $1,250,000 to improve and develop this, and now you come along and want to buy this fertilizer plant. Do you know the assessed valuation of this property? Capt. MCKEAN. I think it is $17,000.

The CHAIRMAN. The assessed valuation?

Capt. MCKEAN. I think so.

The CHAIRMAN. And you ask us to pay $90,000?

Capt. MCKEAN. I do not know how their assessment goes. That is only a recollection, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. This plant is operating at the present time? Capt. MCKEAN. No, sir. The citizens of New London put up $8,000 of their good money and took a lease on it for a year to suppress the nuisance.

The CHAIRMAN. In order to give us a chance to buy it?

Capt. MCKEAN. No; to suppress a nuisance. Their lease will be up some time this fall. The Shay property is assessed on a value of $17.400.

Mr. GILLETT. And they paid $8,000 for one year's lease?

Capt. MCKEAN. Yes, sir. It is a going concern. Here is a statement from the citizens of New London: "The Shay property, including the buildings, is assessed on a value of $17,400." It appears impossible to get any definite statement as to the basis of the assessment. However, I can give you a general idea of property with which I am familiar. In New London we have a property assessed at $540,000, while the money spent on the property is about $3,000,000. There is one-sixth. "The residence of Mr. Morton Plant is assessed on a value of $500,000, while his house alone cost $2,000,000." This is from Mr. Scott, chairman of the committee of the Common Council of New London. We can not utilize that station with the fertilizer factory running. The stench is so bad that it nauseates husky sailor men.

The CHAIRMAN. It should be suppressed as a nuisance.

Capt. MCKEAN. We asked the people to have the State health board do so, but they forestalled us with this proposition-the private citizens went down into their pockets and paid this amount of money.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you not think that you should have taken that into consideration before you asked Congress to appropriate $1.250.000 to put up barracks and improve the station?

Capt. MCKEAN. I think it was taken into consideration. They thought it was done away with.

The CHAIRMAN. What kind of fertilizer do they manufacture? Capt. MCKEAN. I think it is a fish factory from the description that Admiral Grant has given.

The CHAIRMAN. Has anybody examined those buildings?

Capt. MCKEAN. Yes, sir. They say they are in very good shape, that they are sanitary and all right. Admiral Earle's people inspected them for the Bureau of Ordnance. They were looking for mine storage. One small end wall has a crack in it, but the rest of the buildings are all excellent. Everybody seems to consider that the estimate of $50,000, for which they have insured them, is a very reasonable valuation on the buildings.

MONDAY, JULY 30, 1917.

MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT.

(See p. 90.)

STATEMENT OF HON. NEWTON D. BAKER, SECRETARY OF WAR, ACCOMPANIED BY COL. P. E. PIERCE, AND MAJ. B. H. WELLS, GENERAL STAFF CORPS.

PAY, SUBSISTENCE, EQUIPMENT, AND MAINTENANCE.

(See p. 374.)'

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary, do you wish to make a general statement about the estimates transmitted in House Document No. 290, and which aggregate $5.917.878,000, before we take them up in detail?

Secretary BAKER. The only general statement I desire to make, gentlemen, is first to tender you the services of Col. Pierce and Maj. Wells for supplying detailed information about the estimates sug

gested, and to say in explanation rather than excuse of these very large estimates that they are the result of very painstaking attempts on the part of the various bureaus of the department to estimate the needs of the Army in the war.

The CHAIRMAN. For what period?

Secretary BAKER. For the fiscal year ending July 1, 1918. Now, perhaps it might be well for me to read these figures into your record: Balance, June 30, 1917, not including balances under appropriations contained in the urgent deficiency act of June 15, 1917, and other appropriations made immediately available for expenditure

Appropriations already made for the War Department:
Fiscal years 1917 and 1918-
Fiscal year 1918---.

Total

$148, 360, 124. 36

$2, 384, 641, 822. 39
968, 833, 359, 67

3, 353, 475, 182. 06

The CHAIRMAN. Do you include in that $3,000,000,000 the aviation appropriation?

Secretary BAKER. No; that does not include the $640,000,000 aviation appropriation. That comes in later. There are now pending here some estimates which were sent in from time to time aggregating $17,803,000, and there are a large number of items covering additional employees in the War Department, rent of buildings, certain repair items, and the sum of $9,500,000 for machinery for the manufacture of rifles, and those estimates aggregate $17,803,000, and have been sent down here from time to time and cover all the estimates sent from the time of your last appropriation up to the time that this large, compendious estimate was sent in.

Now, there were submitted in this compendius estimate by the Secretary of the Treasury items aggregating $5,917,000,000. That includes the $639,000,000 for aviation, so that exclusive of that the new estimates sent in by the Secretary of the Treasury amount to $5,278,000,000, and adding these to those that have already been appropriated brings the total appropriation up to $8,798,000,000.

Mr. SISSON. That is for the War Department alone?

Secretary BAKER. That is for the War Department alone; yes. I have tried to find out as nearly as it could be estimated how much of this would not be expended in the fiscal year which ends June 30, 1918. That information was chiefly necessary for the purpose of finding out what cash would have to be provided in the Treasury to meet disbursements, and the best estimate I am able to get-confessedly an estimate is that the estimated balance of appropriation not likely to be actually expended by June 30, 1918, is $840,000,000.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary, the department submitted to Con gress estimates based upon the needs of an army of 1,000,000 men in the field for one year, and Congress appropriated that money, excepting that for subsistence and pay in which it made some reductions upon the theory that you could not possibly have 1,000,000 men in the field and in training between now and the 30th of June, 1918. Now, you say that this additional $5,278,000,000 is for the needs of the Army during the present fiscal year based upon the same number of men. Is it based upon the same number of men?

Secretary BAKER. It is based upon a larger number of men; that is, it is based upon calling out the necessary recruit units and reserves

that may be necessary to keep an army of 1,000,000 men up to the full strength of 1,000,000 men.

The CHAIRMAN. How many men is it based upon?

Secretary BAKER. Two million thirty-three thousand men.

The CHAIRMAN. It is based upon calling into the service between now and the 30th of January, 2,033,000 men?

Secretary BAKER. Yes, sir.

Mr. SHERLEY. Is that inclusive or exclusive of officers?

Secretary BAKER. It is exclusive of officers. There are 55,042 officers in addition. Two million thirty-three thousand three hundred and forty-five is the exact number of men. I can give you the components of those figures if you care to have them.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Secretary BAKER. The National Army, so called; that is, the selected men, 17,432 officers and 656,360 men; the Regular Army, 18,033 officers and 470,185 men; National Guard, 13,377 officers and 456,800 men; replacement units for all force, 6,200 officers and 450,000 men; making exact totals of 55,042 officers and 2,033,345 men.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, do I understand that it is believed that this number of men will be taken in between now and the 30th of June, 1918?

Secretary BAKER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. And for what period are the pay and subsistence charges for 2,000,000 men based?

Secretary BAKER. It is based upon an average period. An attempt has been made to ascertain an average period.

The CHAIRMAN. Of how long?

Secretary BAKER. You had better perhaps get that from Col. Pierce, but an attempt has been made to average that, realizing there will not be so many at the beginning but all at the end, so there will be reached an average period for all of them.

The CHAIRMAN. That is what I want to find out.

Secretary BAKER. That you had better get from these other gentlement who have gone over the figures in that detail. I have not. Col. PIERCE. I think the Quartermaster General used one year as the basis on the supposition that there would be such great wastage in all these various supplies that would be necessary.

The CHAIRMAN. If you have based your estimates for subsistence upon a year's basis for 2,000,000 men, of course you are going to have an excess of supplies that you could not even waste, because you will not have 1,000,000 men by the 1st of December equipped and trained, and it would only be seven months from December to the 1st of July.

Secretary BAKER. These estimates are based. so far as subsistence is concerned, on the theory that enormous accumulations, beyond the present consumptive capacity of the troops, must be accumulated in France, so there can in no event be any interruption in the subsistence, no matter what the progress of the difficulty of transportation may be.

The CHAIRMAN. Upon what is the item of pay based?

Secretary BAKER. I would rather you get that from Col. Pierce My thought about it is that it was based upon an average number of men in the service for the period, but I may be in error about that.

Col. PIERCE. I understood from the Quartermaster General it was based on one year.

The CHAIRMAN. Then you have asked here for a year's pay for 2,000,000 men?

Col. PIERCE. Exactly.

The CHAIRMAN. Of course, there will not be any wastage in pay, and you can not possibly spend that by the 30th of June, 1918.

Maj. WELLS. That point was brought up. I brought it up myself with the Quartermaster General, with reference to reducing the items you have just mentioned-pay, subsistence, and possibly transportation on the ground we could at least see now that the first quarter of the fiscal year would have passed before we had any such number of men in the service.

The CHAIRMAN. You will practically not have any for the first quarter.

Maj. WELLS. Yes; we will have about 700,000 by the 1st of September in the National Guard and Regular Army, and 500,000 more on the 1st of September.

The CHAIRMAN. But the original estimates were based on the theory that you were going to have half a million men under this draft system by the 1st of July, and then keep on increasing the number by degrees.

Maj. WELLS. By the end of September we will have in the Regular Army and the National Guard and in this first draft 1.200,000 men. The CHAIRMAN. Are you sure about that?

Maj. WELLS. That is what we are planning.

The CHAIRMAN. I understand that, but is not a proposition under discussion now to call these men out in various quotas because their equipment will be unavailable?

Secretary BAKER. Yes; that suggestion has been made, but it does not lead to any very long delay. It is a very brief delay.

The CHAIRMAN. As a result of not being able to equip the men to be taken in, is not the advisability or the necessity being considered now of simply taking the men in in quotas?

Secretary BAKER. I can answer that better than anybody else. That suggestion has been made. It was made by the Quartermaster General and is now being investigated by the General Staff and the General Munitions Board, and the last report I had from them was to the effect that they did not think that would be necessary; that they could all be called out on the 1st of September or approximately that date as originally planned.

The CHAIRMAN. They can not all be provided with rifles by the 1st of September.

Secretary BAKER. I am not sure about that. They can not all be provided with Springfields, but they can probably all be provided with rifles.

The CHAIRMAN. Not according to the statement of Gen. Crozier when he was last here on his estimates.

Secretary BAKER. They would not all have to have rifles. Some of these troops will be artillery troops, and so on.

The CHAIRMAN. How about uniforms? Have you any information as to when they will be ready?

Col. PIERCE. We think they will be ready by the 1st of September, but, as the Secretary has just said