[No. 6.] HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON NAVAL AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C., Tuesday, January 22, 1918. The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Lemuel P. Padgett presiding. STATEMENT OF SURG. GEN. WILLIAM C. BRAISTED, UNITED STATES NAVY, CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY, NAVY DEPARTMENT. The CHAIRMAN. We have with us this morning Admiral Braisted, Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. The first item to be taken up is on page 67: "Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Medical Department." I see that you have some new language [reading]: Including one bookkeeper at $1,600 and one clerk at $1,400, at the naval medical supply depot, Brooklyn. Tell us about that, will you please? Admiral BRAISTED. Perhaps the busiest place that we have in the Medical Department at this time is the naval medical supply depot in Brooklyn, where all supplies are gathered and issued to the service all over the world. Millions of dollars worth of supplies are going through there. We have always accounted for these by some of our own forces-hospital corps men or hospital stewards-but the accounting has become so important and so great a part of the operaions of the supply depot that we feel the need of skilled accountants o keep track carefully of the expenditures. It is for that purpose hat we want these two skilled accountants in this enormous work, to look out for the careful accounting and recording of these supplies which are going out day and night, Sunday and all the time. Mr. BROWNING. I suppose the business of your department has trebled or doubled, has it not? Admiral BRAISTED. Probably more than that. We are running two shifts, day and night and Sundays, every minute. The CHAIRMAN. I should like to ask you, Doctor, if you could get men of the type and character that you just spoke of a bookkeeper at $1,600 and a clerk of that kind at $1,400-under present conditions. Mr. BUTLER. Is it possible that Dr. Braisted can get along with two men with all this great increase? Admiral BRAISTED. Well, we have hoped that we could. Mr. BUTLER. I know you are always very modest in what you ask. Admiral BRAISTED. We try to be. Of course, I think the importance of that work would probably justify a larger expenditure, but we have put down, as you know, about the ordinary peace-time salaries for accountants. Mr. BUTLER. They are only a part of your civil force? Mr. BUTLER. It is not necessary to put uniforms on these men? Admiral BRAISTED. No, sir; not on these men. Mr. HICKS. Admiral, how much has your civil force increased in the last year? Admiral BRAISTED. Oh, probably 300 per cent; not here only but altogether. Mr. BRITTEN. I notice your appropriation for 1919 is about $880,000 more than it was during the past year. Just where is most of that money going, Admiral? Admiral BRAISTED. Our appropriations for the year that is passing were $8,475,000; we are asking now for $10,500,000 Mr. BRITTEN. I mean just this one item here, not the Medical Department. The total for last year, Doctor, was $4,121,740. Admiral BRAISTED. That is right. Mr. BRITTEN. That is, with the deficiency and the regular appropriation. Now you want $5,000,000 for that same purpose. Admiral BRAISTED. The reason for that is that we are increasing in personnel and in operations all over the world, and this is to include the probable increase in personnel which we expected you would give to the service. These estimates are very carefully made. We are basing our estimates a good deal like we did in peace times. You will see that the appropriation, which was originally for between 60,000 and 70,000 men, is about five times as large only as it was in peace times. In other words, our original appropriation was $1,121,000, and now we have over 300,000 men Mr. BRITTEN. I am talking about both appropriations of last year, making over $4,000,000. Admiral BRAISTED. Yes; but I was going to say this: If in peace times we have, say, 60,000 men, then in war times, when we have over 300,000 men, we would need five times as much, which would be something over $5,000,000. So you see that seems to measure up just about right. The increase on this $4,121,000 we expect to run us through this year without a deficiency. We think it will, but the work is increasing tremendously every day, and with the probable increases in the Navy we thought we had made a very moderate estimate. Mr. BRITTEN. I was not finding any fault with the amount; I am just wondering where the money is going. Admiral BRAISTED. That is the reason-the enlarged activities of the Navy and the increase that is coming; that is all. Mr. BRITTEN. Doctor, what character of medical supplies do you give the gun crews on merchant ships? Admiral BRAISTED. If they are by themselves we give them what we call our "emergency equipment," which is enough for all emergency operations-drugs and medicines that they can use themselves, first-aid measures, and things of that kind. If there is a doctor on board we give them the regular medical outfit for the number of men on board the ship. We have outfits for 75 men, 100, 150, and more, and if there is a doctor on board we give them the regular outfit that goes with the number of men they have. Mr. BRITTEN. Irrespective of the quantity of supplies on board? Admiral BRAISTED. This would be the quantity of supplies on board. Mr. BRITTEN. The doctor on a merchant ship, of course, has no connection whatever with the Navy? Admiral BRAISTED. Not on a merchant ship; no. Mr. BRITTEN. And, of course, he carries a certain amount of supplies for his own crew. Do you aim to supply any of them with your own supplies? Admiral BRAISTED. We supply the crews with whatever is necessary; whatever they ask for. Mr. BRITTEN. The merchant crew? Admiral BRAISTED. Yes. Mr. BRITTEN. As well as the armed guard? Admiral BRAISTED. Yes; if they ask for it we supply them with whatever may be needed. The CHAIRMAN. If we take those ships over and operate them, however, you will supply everything then? Admiral BRAISTED. If we take them over and operate them, of course we will assume the whole thing. The CHAIRMAN. But on those we do not operate, but simply put the gun crews on for protection; you do not furnish supplies to the merchant crews? Admiral BRAISTED. No; so far we have furnished only what has been asked for, just as emergency equipments for the naval gun crews. Mr. BRITTEN. I thought the admiral said that where it was requested they also furnished the medical supplies for the merchant crew. The CHAIRMAN. No; not if they are operated by the private owner. If the Government takes them over and operates them, although they may have commercial crews, then he furnishes everything; but if they are not operating the ship he only furnishes, as I understand him, the supplies requested for the needs of the naval contingent that is on the ship. Admiral BRAISTED. That is practically correct. That is all that we have been asked to do, but what I wanted to say is that we have supplied, in emergencies, anything to anybody as necessity seemed to demand; that is, we have tried to help out. Mr. HICKS. You spoke of some of this appropriation being used for the accumulation of medical stores. Have you experienced any difficulty in getting medical stores, and have you a pretty good stock of them on hand now? Admiral BRAISTED. That clause was put in by you, at your own suggestion, and it has been one of the most useful things in preparation for war that we have had. When the war started we had over a year's supply, on account of this clause which you gentlemen had put in there. Mr. HICKS. A year's supply for the then personnel of the Navy? Admiral BRAISTED. Enough for that, and with enormous reserve contracts promised us if we should need them. There was a very patriotic feeling in the beginning, so that people like Squibbs agreed to carry on their shelves for us a year's supply of almost anything we wanted, which they would not bind us to purchase unless we wanted it. A number of large manufacturing people agreed to do that. Mr. BROWNING. Who was that? |