tendent I have worked very hard to get a more economical administration. We run practically a central power plant in that building for not only our building and the White House but for the rented buildings around in that neighborhood—that is, for the Mills Building, the War Department printing office, the depot quartermaster's office, etc.-furnishing them electric current and now ice. I think we have an economical administration, and we have been doing a great deal with our appropriation during the last three years in the way of permanent repairs that are becoming necessary on the building, because of its age, without asking for any additional appropriation. All of that has been done by requiring more work on the part of the employees and by requiring more intelligent workthat is, we have done what we call planning and management work. We have kept accurate records of unit cost on everything; and then we planned out the work so that we have gotten a very notable decrease in the cost. Now, in order to do that more work, and more intelligent work has been entailed upon our men, and I have asked increases for a number of them on account of that additional work. Where Government employees have shown a disposition to do more intelligent work and more efficient work, I do not believe I can exaggerate the importance of giving them something in the nature of a reward. However, if your committee does not wish to make the slight increase asked here (I think the increase called for amounts to only $1,180 a year), in my judgment, it is so important to make this increase in salaries that we could afford to cut off somewhere else so that the total appropriation would not be increased.

Mr. JOHNSON. You are not asking for as much money as you did. last year?

Capt. GRANT. No, sir; we are asking for an increase in salaries, but the item last year of $14,000 for the installation of a plant comes out. Now, I believe that the Government gets a full return from paying its men properly, and that is particularly the case in the office there. We have done an enormous amount of work in keeping our records straight, and that has been done by this one clerk here. There is no change requested, except that I have asked for a change in the designation. He should be a chief clerk instead of a clerk. There is no change asked in the salary, but I have asked that change be made because in my absence he is the only person to act in my stead, and when he is rated as a clerk it is hard to get the captain of the watch and the chief engineer to take orders from him. We have asked for two clerks at $1,000 each in place of one stenographer and typewriter at $900 and one messenger at $840. The records we have kept in our office enabled us to make computations last spring which showed that by running our electric plant through the summer, which had not been done before, we could save something like $2,100 in electric current, which is paid for out of this next appropriation for fuel, lights, repairs, and miscellaneous items. So that money is available for this year.

ICE PLANT.

Another point is the ice plant. The ice plant was built about two years ago, but last fiscal year, 1912, was the first year it was operated. The cost of operating that plant is such that we are making ice at a cost of about 10 cents per hundred pounds. Before that ice was being purchased by contract for about 30 cents per hundred

pounds, and the total saving during the one year represented 40 per cent on the cost of the installation of the plant. That is not a saving in my appropriation, because that ice was issued to the other departments and they reimbursed me from their appropriations for the actual cost of manufacture, but the operation of that plant has yielded the Government a return of 40 per cent on its investment. The average cost last year was 10 cents per hundred pounds. We have carefully studied the management of that ice plant, and we have cut it down for the first quarter of the present year to a little over 7 cents per hundred pounds, so there will be a still further reduction this year. All that has required the keeping of complete records, which had not been kept before, of the operation of the plant. That has required work on the part of the office force and work of a higher class than they had been doing before. I have asked for these increases in the clerical force because I believe that they have improved and have done better work, and that we are not going to be able to keep them up to that mark without giving them some additional pay or promotion.

CARPENTER AND ELECTRICIAN.

[See p. 102.]

Mr. JOHNSON. You ask an increase of $200 for a carpenter and $200 for an electrician. How long has the electrician been there? Capt. GRANT. About three years.

Mr. JOHNSON. How long has it been since he has had an increase? Capt. GRANT. I am afraid I can not say; it was before my day— perhaps 10 years ago. I would like to say in the matter of the electrician that the electrician at the Capitol gets $1,800; the electrician at the Treasury gets $1,400, and the one at the Post Office Department gets $1,400. Our building is larger than any of those mentioned, except the Capitol. In other words, our electrician is the poorest paid electrician in the Government service, and I believe he is the best electrician in the city.

Mr. JOHNSON. On page 167 is an item in brackets. It appears at the bottom of the page.

Capt. GRANT. That is scratched out. The work is not completed, but it will be this winter. In the case of the plumber, my main reason for asking an increase for him is this: Our plumbing has been in use about 30 years, and a great deal of it is wearing out. It has been usual in most buildings where the plumbing is wearing out to ask for an appropriation to do over the toilet rooms in the building. I would like to avoid that, and I have started in to do it by simply having one or two toilet rooms done over each year by our own plumber, with the assistance of one fireman, who can be spared for that work during the summer. Our plumber did not believe that it could be done, but with the assistance of the fireman who could be spared for that work during the summer he has had time to make the repairs and to do that work necessary to complete two of these rooms. He has been doing for the Government what we would probably be paying $2,000 a year on contract to have done, and it seems to me that an increase of $200, or 10 per cent of that sum, in his salary is not exorbitant. There is no doubt about the necessity of doing over these toilet rooms, but I do not want to come before the committee and ask for an appropriation to do it if we can get it done by a more economical method.

UNEXPENDED BALANCE TO REMOVE SNOW.

There is one thing I would like you to have done. I would like to have added to the wording of that appropriation for salaries this language:

Any unexpended balance of this appropriation shall be available for the hire of labor necessary to remove snow and ice.

We have had difficulty in filling vacancies; and I have not filled vacancies except when absolutely necessary. For instance, we had a fireman absent during the summer, and I did not fill the vacancy until fall. We shall have an unexpended balance of about $1,000 out of these salaries due to these vacancies in positions.

Mr. JOHNSON. Where do you mean to remove the snow and icefrom the steps?

Capt. GRANT. From the steps, the approaches to them, and the sidewalks. We have altogether 90,238 square feet of pavement about that building from which to clean snow.

Mr. JOHNSON. Is there any appropriation or force provided for the removal of snow and ice now?

Capt. GRANT. We have to do it with the laborers provided in this appropriation and with the watchmen and other people as we can turn them out for the purpose. We can do the work in ordinary snowstorms, but it occasionally happens that if we have a fall of 2 inches of snow or more we can not clear it away in a day's time, because we can not get out more than 10 men for that work. This is not asking for additional funds, but the request is that we have the authority to employ men if necessary. In other words, if we have a fall of over 2 inches of snow which we can not handle ourselves we would like to employ assistance. The act of August 5, 1882, prohibits the hiring of labor in that way unless it is specifically provided for, and the comptroller has decided that, although it had been done by our office before in the case of snow and ice, it could not be done under that law.

The CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS,

NOVEMBER 23, 1912.

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. SIR: In connection with my estimates for this office for the coming fiscal year, in which certain small increases in salaries of employees have been recommended, I have the honor to request consideration by your committee of the inclosed paper showing the salaries in corresponding positions for other Government buildings in the District of Columbia. The table is as complete as can be made from the wording of the appropriations for the present fiscal year. It will be noticed that while this building is the second largest in the city (the Capitol being the largest), and while it is charged with the operation of the second largest power plant; the total salaries of the clerical force here are only about one-half of the salaries of the lowest of the other buildings. It will also be noticed that the salary of the electrician in this building is lower than that of any building except the Library of Congress, in which there is no electrical machinery, and therefore the responsibility and duties of the electrician are very much less than here where he has charge of a power plant. Similarly the salaries of the carpenter and plumber are lower than, or are as low as, the salaries of the same employees in other and smaller buildings, while the amount of work they have to do, owing to the larger size of the building and the fewer assistants, is very much greater.

As explained in my testimony before your subcommittee, if the increases requested are granted the salaries of the employees in question will, in no case. exceed those of employees doing similar kind and less amount of work in other buildings; and these increases will be but a very small percentage of the saving to the United States due to the greater amount and more efficient work which

they have accomplished during the past two years and the corresponding less amount of work that has had to be done by contract.

In my testimony before your subcommittee I failed to invite attention to the fact that the printed proof of the appropriation bill indicated the omission of the words" or mechanics" after skilled laborers, and of the word " repairs" after the words 'fuel, lights," etc. These words should be included in the new appropriation bill, making it read as it did for the current fiscal year.

66

Very respectfully,

U. S. GRANT, 3RD., Captain, Corps of Engineers.

Comparative figures showing floor space in various Government buildings and the cost of certain classes of employees under the superintendent of those buildings.

2 Captain of watch in Treasury Building has a clerk, and does not have charge of cleaning nor of laborers.

3 Captain of watch, Post Office Building, does not have charge of cleaning nor of laborers. 4 War Department carpenter receives $1,200.

NAVY DEPARTMENT.

STATEMENT OF MR. F. S. CURTIS, CHIEF CLERK.

DISTRIBUTION OF DOCUMENTS.

Mr. JOHNSON. I want to ask you first of all what effect the provision in the legislative bill last year, requiring that public documents shall be mailed from the Government Printing Office instead of from the various departments of the Government, has had upon your department?

Mr. CURTIS. Well, it has hardly got started yet, but I do not think there is any question but that it will prove satisfactory.

Mr. JOHNSON. You have transferred to the Public Printer your mailing machines and equipment?

Mr. CURTIS. Yes, sir; although we had very little equipment. We had no one division for that work, but it was divided among the 16 bureaus and offices, and the clerks had to do that work in addition to their other work.

Mr. JOHNSON. When you get a letter from anybody anywhere asking you for a particular document of the Navy Department, what do you do with that letter? Do you transmit it to the Public Printer?

Mr. CURTIS. No, sir. We have a mailing frank which is perforated and folded and addressed on the typewriter with a carbon between the folds. The original is 3 by 5 inches, while the duplicate fold is 4 by 5 inches. A piece of carbon paper 3 by 5 inches is placed between the folds, and the slip is addressed to the person writing us for the publication. At the bottom of the duplicate fold is a place for the name of the publication desired and a place for the date the slip is sent to the superintendent of documents. There is also a place for the superintendent of documents to stamp the date the publication is actually sent out by his office. The superintendent of documents tears the frank off at the perforation, pastes the frank on the publication to be sent, and returns the duplicate to the department. This duplicate thus shows the name of the publication, the name of the person to whom sent, the date the frank was sent to the superintendent of documents, and the date the publication was mailed by the superintendent of documents.

Mr. JOHNSON. Then you are doing about as much work as you were doing before the provision was enacted, are you not?

Mr. CURTIS. Yes, sir; to a certain extent; but you save the cost of hauling the documents from the Public Printer up to the Navy Department and then the cost of hauling them to the post office.

Mr. JOHNSON. Do you answer the letter of the person who writes for the document?

Mr. CURTIS. We send him a printed slip.

Mr. JOHNSON. And you file his letter?

Mr. CURTIS. No, sir; we send his letter back to him with the printed slip inclosed, stating that we have requested the Public Printer to send him the publication desired.

Mr. GILLETT. You simply return his letter with that information? Mr. CURTIS. Yes, sir.