older buildings had gas pipes leading to them, and later electricity was put there. Some of them have gas water heaters. Take, for instance, the guardhouse; the only water heater it has for the prisoners is a gas water heater, and there are many similar instances where gas is required for general use at the post.

The CHAIRMAN. Are any of the new buildings unwired?

Maj. CARTER. None of the new buildings; no, sir. I may add that the gas is also used in the chemical laboratory as a part of the instruction equipment, and if the gas plant were taken out a local plant would have to be installed in that building or near it for that work.

TRAVELING EXPENSES OF THE ACADEMIC BOARD.

The CHAIRMAN. "For actual expenses of members of the academic board in making visits to other institutions of learning, to factories, arsenals, etc., $2,500, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be expended under the direction of the superintendent."

Col. STUART. I have perhaps been one of the most active advocates of having the professors at the Military Academy given an opportunity to keep in touch with not only conditions in the military service, but conditions in kindred departments of instruction at other institutions of learning. I have made a number of applications for orders to visit other institutions, and in a number of instances those orders have been refused due to a depletion of the mileage fund under the control of the department. Therefore it has been impossible for me personally in my department to make such visits as I regard as extremely desirable from the standpoint of keeping in touch with other institutions, and this is an item for the purpose of transferring such visits as are made from an expenditure from the mileage fund of the Army to a fund within the control of the superintendent, so that there will always be money available for this purpose. I may say, in further explanation of this item, that since my appointment as professor of drawing six years ago I have received a great deal of assistance and benefit from the few visits I have been able to make to other institutions in the development of my course, so that I regard it as a very essential expenditure.

The CHAIRMAN. Has this question ever been taken up before?
Col. STUART. No, sir.

Mr. SHERLEY. This is really a matter that would properly come up before the Committee on Military Affairs in considering the regular appropriations, would it not?

Col. STUART. Well. I do not know about that.

Mr. SHERLEY. There is nothing of an emergency about this.

Maj. CARTER. I think possibly I know how this originated, if that would be any use to you, Mr. Sherley. Along early in this year the question came up about visits of heads of departments to other departments in a conference between certain officers of the Military Academy and the Secretary of War and the Chief of Staff, and the suggestion was made that it would be quite valuable to the 12 heads of departments if funds were provided by which they would be able to visit other institutions of learning and factories, arsenals, etc. Some difficulty had been experienced in getting travel orders, the expense of such travel being paid from the mileage fund, and it was thought best to make it an actual expense item and place it under

the direction of the Superintendent of the Military Academy, who could, under instructions of the War Department, order heads of departments to various places under this item.

Mr. SHERLEY. I understand that. What I mean is that it is a character of item that should properly go into the bill making appropriations for the Military Academy.

Maj. CARTER. It is.

Mr. SHERLEY. And it is not really a deficiency or an emergency in the sense in which the other items presented in this bill are.

Maj. CARTER. Exactly. It came up after the estimates for the Military Academy bill for the fiscal year 1918 had been presented by the War Department, and that is why it appears here and not in the old bill which is already a law, of course, for the fiscal year 1918.

PURCHASE OF GAS COAL, OIL, ETC.

The CHAIRMAN. "For gas coal, oil, candles, lanterns, matches, chimneys, and wicking, and electric lamps and supplies, and for operating the gas plant, $3,500."

Maj. CARTER. That increase asked for is due purely to the increase in the cost of gas coal estimated for the ensuing year. That is estimated to be about $1.75 per ton higher than the preceding fiscal year. The amount needed will be about 2,000 tons which amounts roughly to $3,500. This is an estimate based on the same experience we had on coal under a preceding item where an increase of $15,000 is asked for.

SUPPLIES FOR RECITATION ROOMS.

The CHAIRMAN. "For supplies for recitation rooms not otherwise provided for and for renewing and repairing furniture in same, $600."

Maj. CARTER. This is an item for supplying certain furniture to recitation rooms. Part of this furniture and equipment is supplied from funds appropriated or allotted to specific departments. Certain general repairs which pertain more to the building and certain new furniture which probably would not be removed from the rooms is taken from this particular appropriation. On account of the increased size of the new fourth class it will be necessary to purchase additional furniture for some of these rooms. This class will have approximately 370 cadets on September 1. The class last year was about 50 less than that on the same date. The two classes using certain of the rooms in which this furniture will be placed aggregate now about 600 cadets as against not exceeding 400 or 450 in the preceding years, so there is an aggregate increase of about 150 cadets. The present fourth class is the largest that has ever entered the academy.

PURCHASE OF ADDITIONAL LAND FOR FIELD ARTILLERY FIRING FACILITIES.

The CHAIRMAN. "For purchase of certain lands adjacent to the United States reservation at West Point, N. Y., $12,000."

Maj. CARTER. That refers particularly to providing facilities for field-artillery firing. Until within the last few years there has been a very limited amount of firing of the field artillery guns by the cadets. It is necessary now to have practically all the firing which

is essential fired from a single point to a single point on a distant mountain about 3,000 or 3,500 yards away. In this firing we fire over these private lands, and that is one reason we would like to acquire them; another is that if we do acquire them it will give us additional facilities for firing which we now have not and which will materially increase the benefit of the practice to the cadets. That practice is now held for a portion of the present first class and a portion of the present third class. Those are two of the classes in cadet camp. They spend Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in camp away from West Point, and on two days of that time they have two classes of practice-a subcaliber practice which is done with 1-pounder ammunition and then the regular service practice. Those classes have been out now alternating in sections for eight weeks, and will continue until about the middle of August, indicating quite a large amount of practice for those men, and particularly for the first class, which will be graduated on August 30; and that is why we are anxious to get this in. Of course, there is no hope of getting it in time for this year's class.

The CHAIRMAN. I do not know whether there is any chance of getting it for any year's class. How much land do you propose to buy?

Maj. CARTER. There are a number of strips which it would be desirable to buy, aggregating something like 100 acres.

The CHAIRMAN. Just where is it located?

Maj. CARTER. If I had a map here it would be very easy to show you. It is between Crow Nest and Highland Falls, to the southwest of redoubts No. 1 and No. 4. They usually fire from the vicinity of redoubts No. 1 and No. 4.

The CHAIRMAN. How is it located with reference to the reservation?

Maj. CARTER. It juts into the reservation from the south or southwestern side.

The CHAIRMAN. Has the question of purchasing this land been up before?

Maj. CARTER. This has not been up before. It was brought up by the War Department some time in the early spring by the local authorities at West Point, but has never been before the Military Affairs Committee of the House.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the character of the land up there?
Maj. CARTER. It is stony and a great portion of it is in forest.
The CHAIRMAN. Is it farm land?

Maj. CARTER. There are farming plots all through it.

The CHAIRMAN. I mean in this particular place.

Maj. CARTER. There are some farming plots and one or two small residences or farm houses.

The CHAIRMAN. It is mostly rough, stony country, is it not?

Maj. CARTER. Yes, sir. I think there are two or three houses on it now that are actually inhabited.

The CHAIRMAN. And it consists of how many acres, did you say? Maj. CARTER. About 170 acres, as I recall now. The maps passed through my hands, but I did not actually have anything to do with the surveying and am speaking from memory and will correct this later.

(NOTE.--These plots on about 170 acres.)

REPAIRS TO WEST POINT HOTEL.

The CHAIRMAN. "For repairs to the West Point Hotel, $45,000." Maj. CARTER. The matter of the West Point Hotel has been up before the department and the Military Affairs Committee a number of times. The hotel was built in about 1826, or nearly 100 years ago, and is a frame structure. Its condition became such about a year ago that a board of officers was appointed to investigate its sanitary condition, provisions for escape from fire, and other conditions that had led to various objections from people that had to stay there-it is the only hotel there and as a result of the report of this board an estimate was made on the repairs, etc., that would be necessary to put it in what the board considered a habitable condition. That estimate, in round figures, was $37,000, and was made about a year ago. It has been necessary to increase that to the figures presented here, $45,000, on account of the increased cost of materials, etc., which would go into it. The number of baths in the hotel is very limited. There are practically no means of heating a number of the rooms and they use ordinary little oil stoves. The place is ranmshackle in almost every respect. In that connection I may add that recently a committee of Congress visited West Point. There were some six or seven Members in the committee. According to the custom they were taken to the hotel and most of them would not stay there. At least two went back to the lighthouse tender on which they were living at the time and one or two others went to officers' quarters at the post. At least two of them stated it was not a suitable place to live and that they would not stay there, and they did not stay there. That occurred in June of this year, or within the last two or three months.

Mr. SHEPLEY. Did you have this estimate before the Military Affairs Committee?

Maj. CARTER. I am not prepared to say, Mr. Sherley, whether it was before the Military Affairs Committee or not. I think we could ascertain that by looking through the estimate here. The general question of the West Point Hotel has been up a number of times I know. I would like to reserve an answer on that unti! I can verify whether or not it was before the Military Affairs Committee.

NOTE. It was not before the Military Affairs Committee.

The CHAIRMAN. Who conducts the West Point Hotel?

Maj. CARTER. It is conducted under a lease. The present lease was made on the 1st of November, 1916, and terminates on the 31st of October, 1917. The lease is for $100 for the hotel for a year, the idea being that the Government will expend about that sum on repairs and that the proprietress-the lessee-will do whatever else is necessary. Of course, the lessee will do practically nothing except what they are forced to do for sanitary reasons, because it is putting money into what they consider a very bad proposition.

The CHAIRMAN. They practically get the hotel, then, for nothing?
Maj. CARTER. Yes, sir.

Col. STUART. I might interpolate here that the hotel is run under almost impossible conditions from the standpoint of running a hotel. The CHAIRMAN. Why?

Col. STUART. That is because the visitors are very largely confined to two or three months in the year, during the summer time, and then

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from that time on toward fall it fills up every Saturday and Sunday only, and again during the spring that same condition of affairs holds, so that it is a hotel which has to be kept open with a force of help organized sufficiently to take care practically of a full quota of occupants of the hotel and yet there are not many of them present, as a general rule, except on two days of the week during the large part of the year except during the summer months. That makes it very difficult to run the hotel, from the standpoint of a hotel proprietor, and make anything out of it.

The CHAIRMAN. There is always a controversy about this hotel, is there not?

Col. STUART. More or less; yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. "For removing, replacing, and resetting 4,200 square feet of white tile in cadet hospital, $3,150."

Maj. CARTER. This came up subsequent to the submission of the regular estimates.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the necessity for it?

Maj. CARTER. The walls of the wards are made of plaster upon which is impressed the tile in blocks about 2 by 3 or 3 inches, presumably for sanitary reasons, and for some reason yet unexplained the wall is bulging the tile out so that it has fallen down in many places, and I have personally seen recently a place as large as those double doors where, if you kind of pressed in on it, the whole thing would come down. Quite a good deal of it has fallen down already. This hospital was built something like forty years ago, or in the early eighties.

The CHAIRMAN. It is an old building?

Maj. CARTER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. When was this condition first noticed?

Maj. CARTER. In the spring of this year; prior to June; in either April or May.

CONSTRUCTION OF CADET BARRACKS.

The CHAIRMAN. "For construction of cadet barracks and headquarters, to be located at the south of the area of the old or south barracks, $444,000."

Col. STUART. That is an item made necessary by the increase of the Corps of Cadets. It is also a part of the general scheme of expansion of plant to take care of the total increase which is intended. The actual facts are that at present there are 336 cadet rooms, which, upon a basis of two cadets to the room, gives a capacity of 672. The actual present strength of the Corps of Cadets is approximately 750, and that leaves out of consideration the graduating class, the class which is to graduate on the 30th of August, so that there will be approximately 750 cadets present during the coming year and that number will be still further increased subsequently. As matters stand, then, at present it will be necessary for a considerable number of cadets to live three in a room until further accommodations are provided, and that number will increase. This item which is inserted here is a provision for one of the buildings to furnish increased accommodations provided in a report of a board of officers