Owing to the methods of representative government, if I make a mistake I have to do without it until I can get congressional action again.

Mr. SHERLEY. Are these estimates based upon inquiry as to cost? Gen. CROZIER. Yes; they are based upon inquiry as to cost. The estimates have to be made so long ahead of the time the money is available that there is usually a great deal of time in which prices can change.

INCREASING RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES.

Mr. SHERLEY. "For increasing railroad transportation facilities, $90,000."

Gen. CROZIER. The operations at the arsenal call for quite a considerable amount of new trackage. We are putting in these plants we just spoke of and, in addition, we are putting in a large number of buildings for the storage of sodium nitrate, and these buildings require railroad tracks running to their vicinity. The quick and economical shipment of stores in and out of this arsenal is important and it is interfered with by having too little trackage facilities, which induces the necessity of having to stop loading or unloading a car and running it back out of the way while another car gets by it to some place beyond. The track which is alongside of the storehouse always ought to be a siding. It ought never to be a main track. That is not the case with our storehouses there in many cases. Usually there is just one track going by the storehouse.

Mr. SHERLEY. How much increase of railroad trackage will this give you?

Gen. CROZIER. This will provide about 2 miles of additional track.

Mr. SHERLEY. Will this give you switch arrangements at most of your shops?

Gen. CROZIER. Yes; it will give it to most of the shops. You can get an idea about that from this sketch. The new track is shown in red and the old track in white.

Mr. SHERLEY. This is quite an expensive time to lay rails, is it not? Gen. CROZIER. Yes; the price of rails is up, but one of the things that sends it up is the same thing that makes the necessity for the rails for the trackage. After the war is over we can probably get along without it.

SAN ANTONIO ARSENAL, TEX.

INCREASING RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES.

Mr. SHERLEY. "For increasing the railroad transportation facilities, $9,000."

Gen. CROZIER. That is for the purpose of running a railroad track into the grounds at the San Antonio Arsenal. There is not any track there now, but the railroad company has seen its way to put one in, and they are going to do it.

Mr. SHERLEY. You mean they are going to put it up to the grounds?

Gen. CROZIER. Yes; and we are going to run it in the grounds.
Mr. SHERLEY. Will this do away with drayage?

Gen. CROZIER. Yes; to a very considerable extent. It will do away with a whole lot of trucking.

MAGAZINE AND STOREHOUSE.

Mr. SHERLEY. "For a magazine, $30,000." What kind of magazine is this to be?

Gen. CROZIER. A magazine for the storage of fixed ammunition, small-arms ammunition, and artillery ammunition. There was one provided for in the last sundry civil bill.

Mr. SHERLEY. We did not know we were going to be met with its companion so early, General. Now, here is the real question: San Antonio Arsenal is, after all, not a manufacturing arsenal. It is simply an assembling arsenal.

Gen. CROZIER. It is an arsenal of storage, issue, and repair, and is distinct from a manufacturing arsenal.

Mr. SHERLEY. Now, except for the trouble on the border, there is about as little reason for enlarging that arsenal as any you could find, is there not?

Gen. CROZIER. Yes, sir; except that one for the railroad track. I think that ought to be put in there.

Mr. SHERLEY. Yes; I can understand that.

Gen. CROZIER. But so far as the other things are concerned, this estimate for the magazine and the one for the storehouse I would not ask for if we could be assured we would not have any trouble with Mexico.

Mr. CANNON. But how can you be sure you will not have?

Gen. CROZIER. If we have trouble with Mexico, this investment down there will be something that we will all be glad we have made. If we anticipate trouble with Mexico and if we want to think of the possibilities of trouble with Mexico, these expenditures ought to be made.

Mr. SHERLEY. We have just given you a storehouse down there, and you are in very much better shape than you have been heretofore.

Gen. CROZIER. That is true.

Mr. SHERLEY. And we have just given you a magazine down there. Gen. CROZIER. Yes; that is true. They are not of sufficient capacity for this arsenal, which is the only one we have anywhere down along that border. The nearest other arsenal to it is Rock Island Arsenal, which is on the Mississippi River. This one is well located with reference to railroad distribution. It would be the main storage base for any operations that might be necessary to carry on in Mexico.

Mr. SHERLEY. That is true, General; but right at this time the Government is having tremendous demands made upon it for work that is of imperative importance and demand is being made upon your corps and every other corps of the Army for a tremendous amount of work which needs to be done. Now, is it wise to add even a slight additional burden both upon the Treasury and upon the officers who must see to the building of these buildings upon a contingency subject to as many doubts and uncertainties as the contingency on which this is based?

Gen. CROZIER. I would be very glad to escape both, Mr. Chairman, the demand on the Treasury and the demand on the insufficient resources of my department and personnel, but I can not escape a feeling of responsibility to provide better than we are providing for con

tingencies down there. Now this is what can be said about it, of course: I do not think there is risk of disaster through failing to provide these facilities for carrying on military operations, but there would be delay and the force required would be larger if the means for properly supplying the troops should not be at hand when they were needed.

INCREASING FACILITIES FOR FIRE PROTECTION.

Mr. SHERLEY. "For increasing facilities for fire protection, $21,000."

Gen. CROZIER. That is something I think ought to be provided anyway, because it is insurance for what we already have there. It is intended for the installation principally of sprinkler systems in seven buildings.

Mr. SHERLEY. What sort of fire protection have you now?

Gen. CROZIER. Our principal reliance is the city fire department. We are right in the city. Then we have hydrants and hose on the ground.

SPRINGFIELD ARSENAL, MASS.

REPLACEMENT OF OBSOLETE AND WORN-OUT MACHINERY.

Mr. SHERLEY. For the replacement of obsolete and worn-out machinery, $300,000.

Gen. CROZIER. There are certain types of machines which are installed in the armory, which as you know is a rifle manufacturing plant, which are of old type purchased a good many years ago. They are not nearly as efficient as more modern types. They call for a good deal of hand manipulation of the work which can be done automatically on new machines. A single operator can turn out more on the new classes of machines.

Mr. SHERLEY. We gave you a good deal of money last year for new machinery at Springfield. We appropriated $100,000 in the sundry civil act.

Gen. CROZIER. That is not a very large amount for machinery for a plant of the size of the Springfield Armory.

Mr. SHERLEY. Do you not get plenty of money for this purpose out of your appropriation for manufacturing small arms?

Gen. CROZIER. In accordance with the interpretation that we have heretofore placed on that appropriation it has not been available. It is now considered available. We have a considerable appropriation for the manufacture of arms, and perhaps I could get this machinery out of it. We do not pretend to estimate so closely that $300,000 would produce any material effect on the appropriation which we now have for small arms.

PLANT FOR GENERATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER.

Mr. SHERLEY. "For installation of a plant for the generation and distribution of electric power at the water shops, $90,000."

Gen. CROZIER. Down at the water shops at present we have a power plant which is a combination of steam and electricity. The capacity of this power plant has been taxed very severely by the installation of the plant that is there now, which is shown in rather frequent breakdowns. The generator in particular ought to be replaced by a

new one which can be operated by either steam or electricity, and we can get one with this appropriation. The Springfield Armory is divided into two parts about a mile apart, one part called the hill shops and the other called the water shops. The hill shops are right in the middle of the town of Springfield up on high ground, and the water shops are along a stream which runs through the city, where there is a dam and a water power belonging to the Government. We have an appropriation already for the improvement of the power plant for the hill shops, and this one is intended to apply, as is stated in the item, to the other part of the establishment. I mention this so you will not get this confused with the item which was in the last sundry civil bill, I think, and get the idea they are intended for the same purpose. They are for the same kind of purpose, but are intended for different places.

Mr. SHERLEY. Is your present plant inadequate?

Gen. CROZIER. Yes; the present plant is inadequate for certain and economical operation. It is subject to frequent and expensive breakdowns.

Mr. SHERLEY. Are you running this arsenal on a two-shift basis? Gen. CROZIER. Yes; of 10 hours each.

INSTALLATION OF LIGHTING SYSTEM.

Mr. SHERLEY. "For the installation of a modern lighting system in the water shops, $25,000."

Gen. CROZIER. We have tried the Cooper-Hewitt system of lighting in two of the departments down at the water shops, the barrel department and the drilling room, and it has been very successful.

Mr. SHERLEY. What sort of a system is that?

Gen. CROZIER. The Cooper-Hewitt system is a tube system of lighting. The light is in a long tube. We have some pretty delicate operations in the manufacture of rifles, as you know, the chambering and the rifling of the barrels are very delicate operations and they need good light, and with this light we find we can do these operations about as well by night as by day, and we do not find what we have always encountered before, that the employees in different parts of the shop complain about the eye strain due to the bad light. I think this system ought to be extended throughout the other rooms of the water shops, which I have just been speaking about, and that they ought to be extended also throughout the other shops up in the town known as the hill shops.

Mr. SHERLEY. You were only asking for it for the water shops? Gen. CROZIER. Well, that is not properly worded.

Mr. SHERLEY. Is this sufficient for all the shops?

Gen. CROZIER. Yes; this would be sufficient for all the shops.

Mr. SHERLEY. Then you want stricken out the words " in the water shops."

Gen. CROZIER. Yes.

PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL LABORATORY.

Mr. SHERLEY. "For a physical and chemical laboratory, including buildings, $30,000."

Gen. CROZIER. We have not been in the habit in the past of getting any chemical analysis of the steel which is used in the manufacture 4400-17-52

of rifles at the Springfield Armory, because we have always had to apply to other establishments to make these analyses for us. The physical tests and working tests have been made in the shops, and that has been troublesome. It has interfered with regular manufacture and has been an unnecessary expense on that account, because in interfering with regular manufacture it usually stops the output of some machine, and then the output of all the other machines is superfluous until that machine gets going again. Similarly, the hardening and tempering of tools, of which a whole lot is required, has been performed in the shops and at different places and by different men and with different degrees of uniformity and with different kinds of results. That kind of heat treatment is rather delicate and it ought to be done with scientific uniformity and in a single place, so that these tools will all be alike; that is to say, they would all be up to the standard of the best. If this work of hardening and tempering is all done in one place, of course, it can be standardized there.

We intend with this fund to install apparatus and equipment for doing all these things, for making chemical analyses not only of steel but also of lubricating oils, which it is very necessary to analyze and in regard to which there are great differences in quality. We can make better tests of the steel than we have made heretofore, using the recently introduced processes of microphotography, by which we photograph fractures and greatly enlarge them, and tell things about the structure of the steel that we had to take on faith before; we can perform the work of machining specimens for tests in testing machines and not have to rely on the machines that are intended for the regular output for that purpose, and can do certain experimental work in addition to this which I have been detailing to you, which is all work of regular and current manufacture.

STORAGE FACILITIES AT ARMORIES AND ARSENALS.

Mr. SHERLEY. The next item is "For additional storage facilities at armories and arsenals, $500,000." We gave you $1,000,000 just a couple of months ago?

Gen. CROZIER. You did, Mr. Sherley; and I have gone on since this estimate was made and worked out a certain distribution and utilization of that million dollars, and have concluded that although I may want this $500,000 in addition, I can get along without it at the present time, and you need not put it in the bill.

TERMINAL FACILITIES.

Mr. SHERLEY. The next item is "For terminal storage and shipping buildings and other facilities, including rentals, $25,000,000.” Gen. CROZIER. That is, as you see, a pretty large project. It is intended to cover the terminal storage and shipping places for the accumulation of arms, ammunition, and other ordnance stores for shipment to Europe, solely in connection with this present war. The amount of that kind of material which the Ordnance Department is contemplating, and which gives rise to this estimated, is that necessary for the maintenance in Europe of an Army of about 1,000,000 men. The stores that will be necessary for that Army will be produced all over the country, particularly all over the northern and